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 T.C.

ISTANBUL AYDIN UNIVERSITEY

INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL SCIENCES

THE CRISIS OF IDENTITY IN POSTCOLONIAL LITERATURE

Phd Dissertation

Saman Abdulqadir Hussein DIZAYI

Department of English Language and Literature

English Language and Literature Program

Thesis Advisor: Prof. Dr. Hatice Gönül UÇELE

April 2017
 T.C.

ISTANBUL AYDIN UNIVERSITEY

INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL SCIENCES

THE CRISIS OF IDENTITY IN POSTCOLONIAL LITERATURE

Phd Dissertation

Saman Abdulqadir Hussein DIZAYI

(Y1314.620020)

Department of English Language and Literature

English Language and Literature Program

Thesis Advisor: Prof. Dr. Hatice Gönül UÇELE

April 2017
ii
iii
iv
 DECLARATION

I proclaim that I collected and implemented all data according to academic

guidelines and ethical policy while writing this dissertation. Also, I proclaim that I
indicated all citations and references in this study originally. (19.04.2017)

Saman Abdulqadir Hussein DIZAYI

v
vi
FOREWORD

First of all, I would like to thank all the staff of English Language and literature
department at IAU especially Assist. Prof. Dr. Turkay Bulut, who was supportive
and kind; listening to our issues patiently,. My gratitude to the whole staff with
special respect to all the teachers who taught me during semesters.
My deepest respect to my supervisor Prof.Dr. Hatice Gonul Ucele, she was a perfect
example of the advisor who is not only teaching and giving advice but also directing
us for a better education.
Special thanks to my friend and teacher Assist. Prof. Dr. Gordon marshal, who
supervised my dissertation for about one year and he was the most closer to my heart
from the beginning our journey ahead to the final aim achieving our Phd diplomas.
Many thanks to my dear colleagues who accompanied us during our presence at the
university, especially my dear friend Assist. Prof. Dr. Ugur Diler for his support and
kindness. My respect and love to my friends who were the energy for continuing and
not to stop, Assist. Prof. Dr. Belgin Sakiroglu, and Peiman Periru.
Finally and most importantly, this dissertation couldn’t exist without the patience and
support and greatness of my lovely wife Herar İsmail Mahmood, all my love to you
my dear wife and to our sweet daughters; Serwa, Saya, and Soma, thanks for being in
my life.

March 2017 Saman Abdulqadir Hussein DIZAYI

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viii
TABLE OF CONTENTS

Pages

FOREWORD ............................................................................................... vii

TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................... ix
ABSTRACT .................................................................................................. xi
ÖZET .......................................................................................................... xiii
1. INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................... 1
2. POSTCOLONIAL PERIOD AND LITERATURE: GENERAL
BACKGROUND ............................................................................................. 9
2.1. The Postcolonial Atmosphere ........................................................................... 9
2.2 Postcolonial Identity Issues .............................................................................. 11
2.3. Postcolonial Novel .......................................................................................... 17
2.3.1 Postcolonial novel: Introduction ............................................................... 17
2.3.2 The theme of identity in the postcolonial novel ........................................ 18
2.4 Conclusion ....................................................................................................... 20
3. IDENTITY CRISIS IN POSTCOLONIAL THEORY ............................... 21
3.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................... 21
3.2 Postcolonial Theory and the Question of Identity.......................................... 21
3.3 Theoritical Viewpoints on Postcolonial Identity: Fanon and Said................... 24
3.4 Conclusion ....................................................................................................... 31
4. IMMIGRANT IDENTITY CRISIS IN SAM SELVON'S THE LONELY
LONDONERS ............................................................................................... 35
4.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................... 35
4.2 Background ...................................................................................................... 35
4.3 The Lonely Londoners Critical Analysis .......................................................... 37
4.4 Exile, Language, and Identity Crisis ................................................................ 53
4.5. Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 66
5. IDENTITY CRISIS IN THE MIMIC MEN BY V. S. NAIPAUL ................ 69
5.1. Introduction .................................................................................................... 69
5.2. Identity Crisis in The Mimic Men: Analysis ................................................... 70
5.3. Cultural Confrontation and Identity Crisis ...................................................... 79
5.4 Home, Exile, and Identity ................................................................................ 82
5.5 Exile, Identity and Estrangement ................................................................... 101
5.6 Accords of Identity in Postcolonial Literature ............................................. 105
5.7. Conclusion .................................................................................................... 107
6. CONCLUSION ...................................................................................... 111
REFERENCES ........................................................................................... 117
RESUME………………………………………………………………………….125

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x
 THE CRISIS OF IDENTITY IN POSTCOLONIAL LITERATURE

ABSTRACT

During the second half of the twentieth century a new era arose when many countries
gained independence, transitioning from colony to country. According to literary
critics and theorists, the term “postcolonial” is defined as all the culture affected by
the imperial process from the moment of colonization to the present day. Colonialism
has had an immeasurable influence on history of the world, societies and individuals.
It has penetrated the larger issues of culture, race, gender, and identity. Most themes
that postcolonial theory and literature deal with are race, gender, ethnicity, identity
and culture. One of the controversial issues of post colonialism is the question of
identity and culture. In the modern world with the increase of immigrant numbers,
hybrid nations, and constitutions of countries with different cultural diversities, the
question of identity came to the surface.
Theorists have paid a great attention to identity issues. Franz Fanon’s argued about
the consequences of colonialism and the change formed by the experience of
immigration. For Edward Said, the central point of identity construction is the ability
to resist and to recreate oneself as a postcolonial, anti-imperialist subject. At the
same time, postcolonial novelists especially writers in former British colonies
attracted the attention of readers and literary prizes. These novelists exposed and
expressed the conditions of identity crises that emerged in postcolonial period. Their
novels rarely avoided or escaped from the presence of Diasporas and exile and
matters connected to identity.
Chapter 1 of this thesis introduces the study and a brief account of the meaning and
historical background of the term "postcolonial"; it also sheds light on some
important issues of postcolonialism and its most commonly discussed terms, such as
diaspora, hybridity, and displacement. In addition, it explains the nature of the novel
and of the period and its emergence, figures and characteristics.
The theoretical approach of the dissertation is discussed in Chapter 2, which explains
briefly postcolonial theory, and then investigates outstanding theorists, Stuart Hall,
Fanon, Said, Bhabha, Bill Ashcroft, Eduard Glissant, and others. These theorists
have given greater attention to explaining identity crisis in the postcolonial era
because of its importance in the complexity surfaced after colonialism. Chapter 2
also argues the value of identity as a thematic subject in the postcolonial period and
literature. The chapter's main discussion focuses on the theorists’ arguments about
identity in the postcolonial world and their views about the construction of identity in
former colonized countries. In particular, they note immigrants from postcolonial
countries who suffered the diasporas and the dilemma of constructing a coherent
identity.

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Chapter 3 is devoted to analyzing the novel The Lonely Londoners (1956), by the
Trinidadian author Sam Selvon, and its connections to postcolonial theory, especially
Fanon and Said, whose have discussed identity, homelessness, and the diasporas of
the Caribbean immigrants in the postcolonial period. Chapter 3 also examines The
Lonely Londoners as a textual space concerned with picturing the specific
experiences of a marginalized and diasporic group of individuals encountering the
colonial “centre” of London. Chapter 4 analyzes the crisis of identity in Nobel Prize-
winner Naipaul’s The Mimic Men (1967). The chapter derives its argument from
postcolonial theorists Fanon and Said arguments about mimicry and the crisis of
identity felt by Naipaul’s protagonist. The discussion shows the impact of
colonialism on individual ambivalence and the loss of identity and how this leads to
an imitation of the colonizer’s identity. Chapter 5 also shows the findings of the
study, arrived at from the above postcolonial novels and analyzed according to
arguments of postcolonial theories in issues of the identity crisis.

The conclusion shows how pro-colonized people faced their crisis of identity as a
dilemma, ascribed to the impact of colonial tradition; the history of colonialism
weighed heavily even on immigrants who became citizens of colonizer countries.
Finally, the strategy of colonial power has had an effective influence on colonized
people losing their sense of identification and becoming mimics of their host
countries and while remaining with a sense of homelessness.

Keywords: Post colonialism, Postcolonial Theory, Postcolonial Novel, Identity,

Mimicry, Cultural Diversity, Resistance, Exile.

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 SÖMÜRGECILIK SONRASI EDEBİYATDA KİMLİK KRİZİ

ÖZET

Birçok ülkenin koloniden ülkeye geçiş yaparken bağımsızlığını kazandığı yirminci

yüzyılın ikinci yarısından itibaren yeni bir dönem oluştu. Birçok edebiyat
eleştirmenlerine ve kuramcıya göre, sömürgecilik (kolonizasyon) terimi,
sömürgecilik döneminden günümüze kadar var olan imparatorluk sürecinden
etkilenen kültürün tümü olarak tanımlanmaktadır. Sömürgeciliğin, dünyanın,
toplumların ve bireylerin tarihi üzerinde büyük bir etkisi olmuştur. İnsanoğlunun
kültür, ırk, cinsiyet ve kimlik gibi büyük sorunları ile ilgilidir. En çok tartışılan
konular ırk, cinsiyet, etnik köken, kimlik ve kültürdür. Postkolonyalizmin tartışmalı
konularından biri kimlik ve kültür meselesidir.Göçmen sayısı, melez uluslar ve farklı
kültürel çeşitliliği olan ülkelerin anayasalarındaki artış ile modern dünyada kimlik
sorunu belirgin bir hale geldi.
Kuramcılar kimlik konularına büyük önem vermişlerdir.Franz Fanon'un kuramsal
argümanı, kolonyalizmin sonuçlarını ve göç deneyimi ile oluşturduğu değişimi
anlatıyor.Edward Said'e göre kimlik oluşumunun ana noktası postkolonyal, anti-
emperyalist bir konu olan direnme ve kendini yeniden oluşturma yeteneğidir. Homi
Bhabha'nın kuramsal sunumu, her türlü özcü kültürel kimliğin geçerliliği ve
özgünlüğünü zorlayan hem sömürgeci hem de sömürülenlerin öğelerinin iç içe
geçmesinden gelmektedir. Aynı zamanda Postkolonyal Romancılar, özellikle eski
İngiliz kolonilerindeki yazarlar, okuyucuların ve edebiyat ödülü organizatörlerinin
dikkatini çekmişti.Postkolonyal romancılar, postkolonyal dönemde ortaya çıkan
kimlik krizi koşullarına maruz kaldılar ve dile getirdiler.Romanları nadiren
Diasporaların varlığından, sürgünden ve kimlikle ilgili konulardan kaçındı veya
kaçtı.
Tezin birinci bölümü, çalışmayı ve "postkolonyal" teriminin anlam ve tarihsel arka
planını yeterli bir şekilde tanıtmaktadır ve ayni zamanda postkoloniyalizmin önemli
konularından bazılarına ve diaspora, melezlik ve yer değiştirme gibi en çok tartışılan
terminolojisine ışık tutuyor.Bunun yanında, romanın ve dönemin doğasını ve ortaya
çıkışını, rakamları ve özelliklerini açıklar.Tezin teorik yaklaşımı ikinci bölümünde
tartışılmaktadır. Postkolonyal teoriyi açıklamakta ve ardından StuartHull,
FrantzFanon, Edward said, HomiBhabha, Bill Ashcroft, EduardGlissant ve diğerleri
gibi en önemli kuramcılarını araştırmaktadır. Kuramcılar postkolonyal dönemde
kimlik krizini açıklamak için daha büyük bir ilgi göstermiştir çünkü bu
kolonyalizmden sonra ortaya çıkan karmaşıklığın önemli bir özelliğidir.Bölüm ayrıca
postkolonyal dönemde ve edebiyatta bir tematik konu olarak kimlik değeri hakkında
tartışma yapıyor.Bölümün ana tartışması, postkolonyal dünyada kimlik konusunda
kuramcıların argümanları, eski sömürge ülkelerde kimlik oluşumu konusundaki

xiii
düşüncelerinin ne olduğu ve fikirlerini nasıl sundukları, diaspora ve ikilemlere maruz
kalan bu ülkelerden gelen göçmenlere ve kimliklerini oluşturmada yaşadıkları
zorluklar üzerine odaklanmaktadır. Üçüncü bölüm, Trinidadian, Sam Selvon'un
Romanı Yalnız Londralılar (1956) ve postkolonyal teoriyle, özellikle Franz Fanon,
HomiBhabha'nın kimlik, yurtsuzluk ve postkolonyal dönemde Karayip
göçmenlerinin diasporaları hakkındaki fikirleriyle nasıl gittiği konusuna ayrılmıştır.
Bölüm Yalnız Londralılar'ı Londra'nın kolonyal 'merkezini' bulan bir grup marjinal
ve diasporik bireyin özel deneyimlerini resmetmek ile ilgili bir metin alanı olarak
inceler. 1969 yılında basılan Tayeb Salih'in Kuzeye Göç Mevsimi (Mawsim al-hijra
ila al-shimal) adlı romanı dördüncü bölümde eleştirel olarak incelenmiştir. Bölüm
Edward Said, HomiBhabha ve Fanon'unpostkolonyal kuramlarının merkezi
argümanlardan biri olan romanda direniş kavramını inceliyor. Kuzeye Göç Mevsimi,
romanın ana kahramanı, Mustafa Saeed şeklinde Doğu ve Batı arasındaki çatışma ile
ilgilidir,ve birçok kişi tarafından edebiyat için olağanüstü bir katkı olarak karşılandı.
Kuzeye Göç Mevsimini inceleyen bölüm ayrıca Fanon ve Glissant'ın direniş kavramı
gibi birçok postkolonyal kuram ve fikirleri ortaya çıkaran bir romandır.Dahası,
Edward Said'in direnç ve güç konusundaki fikirlerine göre yorumlanabilir. Buna ek
olarak, postkolonyal kuramcı, HomiBhabba'nın fikirlerini ve sömürgecinin taklitinin
varsayımını yansıtıyor olabilir. Beşinci bölüm Nobel Ödülü kazanan roman V.S.
NaipaulTaklik Eden İnsanlar (1967) adlı romandaki kimlik krizini analiz etmektedir.
Bölümün, postkolonyal kuramcı HomiBhabha'nın Kültürün Konumu isimli
romanında tartıştığı taklitçilik kavramından ortaya çıkmıştır. Bölümün tartışması
bireylerin kararsızlığı ve kimlik kaybı ile sömürgecilerin kimlik taklidine nasıl yol
açtıkları üzerinde kolonyalizmin etkisini gösterir.Altıncı bölüm, yukarıda belirtilen
seçilmiş postkolonyal romanlardan elde edilen ve kimlik krizi konusu bakımından
postkolonyal kuramların argümanlarına göre incelenen çalışmanın bulgularını
göstermektedir. Sonuç, kolonize edilen insanların nasıl bir kimlik ikilemiyle karşı
karşıya kaldığını, kimlik krizlerinin kolonyal geleneğin etkisine atfedildiği ve
kolonyalizm tarihinin kolonize eden ülkelerin vatandaşları olan göçebelerin üzerinde
bile etkisi olduğunu göstermektedir. Ayni zamanda tez kolonyal gücün stratejisinin
kolonize olan insanların kimlik hissiyatını kaybetmelerine ve taklit olup yurtsuz
hissetmelerine neden olan bir etkisi olduğunu ortaya çıkarmıştır.

Anahtar Kelimeler:Postkolonyalizm, Postkolonyal Teori, Postkolonyal Roman,

Kimlik, Taklitçilik, Melezlik, Direniş, Oryantalizm

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1. INTRODUCTION

The focus of this dissertation is on the concept of identity crisis in literary works
composed in the postcolonial era. ‘postcolonial’ as a term might be comrehended to
mean only the time period during the processes of colonization in the eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries, However, “within cultural studies it is generally utilized also to
include the colonial discourse as well. Thus, the conception ‘postcolonial’ refers to
the globe both during and post European colonization.”( Baker, 2004, p. 148) The
latter years of the 20th century witnessed a change in the world order with new
independent nations taking shape and colonies under the control of imperial powers
becoming sovereign nations. According to many eminent writers and critics,
postcolonial effect encompasses the total period, under the impact of imperialism
beginning from the takeover of colonies extending to the present (Ashcroft, Griffiths
& Tiffin 1989a, p. 194; Ashcroft, Griffiths & Tiffin 1989b, p. 186). Imperialism has
shaped to a great extent the development of social structures and events in world
history. The development of important human issues like ethnicity, gender equality,
culture, and identity are all linked to imperialism. The significance of literary works
composed during the postcolonial period in the larger picture of world literature has
been reaffirmed by the incorporation of such works in the curriculum of prestigious
literature courses in universities such as Cambridge, Oxford, among others. It is
indeed true that a clear picture of any time in history can be described in literature;
authors have the power to give voice to oppressed subjects under colonial rule, or
their plight and struggle related to daily existence, all of which have been well
recorded and beautifully expressed in written works, serving to change our views of
colonialism worldwide (Ashcroft et al. 1989, p. 1).

Literary works dealing with the postcolonial era and criticism came to the fore when
the struggle for independence began in many nations or colonies in their quest to
become sovereign nations. The common issues that act as sources of inspiration for
such works included ethnicity, racial- and gender-related issues, culture, and identity.
According to Habib (2008), the criticism of literary works composed after the

1
colonial era served many purposes: in their most basic function they presented a
picture of the colonial era from the eyes of the subjects ruled, studying the effect of
colonial rule on both rulers and the subjects of the colonies with regard to changes in
culture, political, and financial issues, understanding the end of colonization and,
most importantly, becoming important players in the struggle for sovereignty, which
focused on demand for equal availability of resources, revolt against foreign
authority, and expression of indigenous cultural and political existences (p. 739).

According to Terry Eagleton, postcolonial literature not only deals with the removal
of colonial powers and development of multicultural identity, it also heralds the
beginning of a new era in the developing countries, evolving from different
independence movements (Eagleton 1996, p. 205). Critics, including Habib and
Ashcroft note the remarkable finding that after the 1950s a shift in the power center
of literature occurred: instead of American or British writers, eminent writers and
scholars heralding from countries previously ruled by the British took center stage,
for example, Homi Bhabha, Derek Walcott, Salman Rushdie, Sam Selvon, Wole
Soynika, V. S. Naipaul, Gayatry Spivak, Edward Said, and Chinua Achebe, among
many others.

The issue of identity and culture has always brought out conflicting views in
postcolonial works. In today’s world, where large scale immigration is the norm, and
nations form a picture of multiculturalism, with countries composed of citizens of
diverse nationalities, the issue of identity becomes even more relevant. Regarding the
view put forward by Jones Brockimeier and Donal Carbaugh in their work Narrative
and Identity, the term identity encompasses many different intellectual issues that
have been analyzed under different schools of thought and in context of different
theories. Identity is not only important from the context of literature; it also holds
great significance in day-to-day existence, Pieterse suggests that after the Second
World War colonial powers started losing their grip over colonies and that the
identities of the weak and of colonial subjects emerged as an important theme
(Pieterse 2002, p. 22). In this theme, involving the consideration of oneself and of the
other as well, the question of identity forms a vacuum, or a problem with no clear
answer, existing instead in the presence of a variety of different and related
viewpoints (Hall 1989, p. 10).

2
Franz Fanon has dealt at length with the impact of colonialism and the effects of
immigration. He describes how an immigrant must appear to be similar to the
stereotype of a white person, so as to be accepted in a European nation, and the
manner in which an immigrant is forced to subvert his own individuality so the
colonial nation cannot view him under the prism of his “backward” cultural
characteristics (Ryan 2012, pp. 117-118). Edward Said’s idea of identity borrowed
heavily from the Foucaultian concept of power focused on the need to assert oneself,
to develop an individual personality that is against the ideals of colonialism and
imperialism. Said stressed that this transformation must be documented and analyzed
since the true meaning of freedom is the development of a unique identity and the
fate of a person is not dictated merely by his governing authority or oppressive
rulers, it is in the hands of the person himself to shape his own destiny (Ashcroft &
Ahluwalia 1991, p. 112).

Homi Bhabha, also an eminent postcolonial figure, wrote The Location of Culture to
put forward a concept different from Said’s views that focused on Foucault’s
knowledge and power concept: Bhabha instead used the idea of hybridity (Dar 2013,
pp. 131-151). He observed that such a picture develops when cultural traits of a
colonial power and its colony intermingle together, leading to a new identity that
conforms to no specific or stereotypical cultural description (Meredith 1998, p. 2).
Bhabha goes on to create the concept of a “third space” that lies somewhere in
between two separate cultures. This space allows the intermixing of different cultural
traits without any prejudice, coercion, or imposition (Bhabha 1994, p. 4).

Gaiatry Spivak, in “Can Subaltern Speak?” (1988), attempts to defy the heritage of
colonialism and challenges the idea of the Western superiority over the developing
nations. She contends that the position of marginalised subalterns, particularly
women, in spite of overriding the colonial authority, has not surpassed its systematic
impact. She confirms that the female colonized voice is regarded as inferior and not
listened to;

“As object of colonialist historiography and as subject of insurgency, the

ideological construction of gender keeps the male dominant. If, in the
context of colonial production, the subaltern has no history and cannot
speak, the subaltern as female is even more deeply in shadow” (p. 287).

3
Her point of view falls in line with that of Fanon regarding oppositing colonial
hegemony, “perceived by many to reproduce the social and political inequalities that
were prominent under colonial rule” ( Morton 2003, p. 2).

According to Glissant,identity is not a fixed state; rather, it resides in a state of

continuous flux in accordance with Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari’s (1980)
rhizomatic concept of culture. Identity keeps on changing every moment and no one
can predict the final result (Gyssels, 2001). Applying different theoretical concepts to
Francophone colonies, emphasizing the intermingling of cultural traits and
representation, has been well described by Angela Bruning in her research. She
argues that, where immigration, cultural traits, and the understanding of the historical
evolution of the Caribbean are concerned, a definite relationship and similarity
among Francophone and Anglophone subjects occurs (Bruning 2006, p. 11).

Literary prize committees and avid readers of literature have shown enormous
interest in authors hailing from regions previously ruled by the British Empire.
Christopher O’Reilly, in his work Postcolonial Literature (2001), asserts the need to
view postcolonial literature as an independent entity, separate from the works of
native British writers and must include English literature from all over the world (p.
7). Most scholars of the postcolonial era have given immense importance to identity
and, according to Sheoran, the search for identity, and the confusion regarding their
culture, which has permeated the life of colonial subjects, has been the primary issue
explored in a majority of written works in the postcolonial era, along with the
changes brought about due to the effects of imperialism on the native population
(Sheoran 2014, p. 1).

Thus, authors have tried to analyze and understand the search for identity as the
byproduct of colonial rule. No conscious effort has been made in such literary works
to keep the plot away from immigrants, diaspora, and issues related to existential
crisis. Sam Selvon, V. S. Naipaul, and Salman Rushdie have written extensively
about the confusion of colonial subjects and their identity crisis. Both Selvon’s The
Lonely Londoners and Naipaul’s The Mimic Men have plots that depict immigrants
who continuously attempt to develop identities of their own and who must ward off
the threats to their culture.

4
Selvon’s novel approaches the post-imperialistic era using London as the central
theme of the plot, as do many other literary works where London looms large as the
seat of colonial power, but also home to the possibilities and dangers of the modern
world (Halloran 2007, p. 121). According to Rebecca Dyer, Selvon has deliberately
used a plot in which immigrants are central characters leading their lives in London,
thus managing to emphasize the immigrant claim on the very heart of the colonial
Empire (Dyer 2002, p. 108). The novel revolves around the daily life of the
Trinidadian immigrants and their feelings of identity crisis, which, according to
Graham MacPhee requires reader empathy with immigrant life and understanding of
the way an individual’s identity is both lost and reformed in the society he lives in
(MacPhee 2011, p. 3).

Bill Ashcroft has stated that almost three quarters of the total world population has
been affected by the imperialism (1989, p. 1) The literature dealing with the
postcolonial era is not only important in context of historical evolution or cultural
analysis of specific nations but also, according to C. L. Innes analysis, has caught the
fancy of scholars and readers worldwide, particularly in the last fifty years (Innes,
2007, p. 1); until now this continual exploration of identity has caused differences
and discussions among various cultures and nations.

This dissertation will analyze and interpret works related to the postcolonial era,
especially those by writers of countries previously under British rule, and which have
plots revolving around the search for identity with regards to postcolonial context. It
uses the work of Said and Fanon to focus on two novels in understanding the colonial
subjects’ search for their true identity within the impact of colonial rule. It also
explores the identity crisis faced by migrants, observing especially how and when
they feel out of sync with their new home and the precarious positions in which they
find themselves in balancing the effort of retaining their cultural roots and conflicting
the need to assimilate within the new culture. Finally, the study will analyze the
impact of colonialism on colonial subjects in context of the ways in which they
visualize or imagine themselves.

This dissertation deals with the postcolonial literature and specifically works by
writers belonging to countries previously under the British rule. An analytical
approach is employed, using theories related to the postcolonial period on works
produced at different time periods of this era. The approach includes thorough and

5
extensive research that covers original works, critical reviews, and journals related to
postcolonial culture and literature. The entire thesis has been subdivided into five
chapters. All the chapters have been summarized in the following.

Building on the introduction, Chapter 1 briefly discusses the historical context and
implications of the word “postcolonial” and a few significant issues related to the
postcolonial era and linked to the crisis of identity, such as multiculturalism,
diaspora, displacement, and mimicry. It also explains the literary works developed in
the postcolonial period, their specific features and characters.

The methods used in this thesis are discussed in Chapter 2, beginning with
postcolonial theory, followed by the works of eminent scholars in the field––Fanon,
Bhabha, Stuart Hall, Said, and Bill Ashcroft. The focus of the chapter is on scholarly
views of identity crisis in the postcolonial era and their particular arguments
regarding the development of identities and crisis, shedding light on the problem of
immigrants who deal with living in the diaspora and their daily struggle to carve out
a niche for themselves.

Scholars have accorded high significance to the analysis of the search for identity,
since it has huge implications in the world developing after the end of colonization.
According to Ashcroft, Griffiths, and Tiffin (1989), the majority of postcolonial
literary works revolve around exile and around settling in foreign place. This brings
to the surface the search for identity and the struggle to rediscover and redevelop a
new relationship between the person and his new home (p. 8). So, to provide
theoretical support, Chapter 2 considers the relevance of identity as a central theme
in postcolonial literature; this is in accordance with Hall’s consideration of identity
as reinitiating a relationship with the place without which a counter politics would
never have developed. It is important to remember that this is a symbolic effect
rather than an expression of inborn identity (Hall 2000, p. 149). Chapter 2 thus
focuses on the following points: 1) Fanon’s views regarding the impact of the
colonial rule on people, even after they have become citizens of a free nation as
according to David Richards (2010). Fanon noted that simply being free from the
colonial rule did not wipe away the influence of the colonial culture on the people’s
expression of identity (Richards 2010, p. 11); 2) Edward Said’s paradoxical concept
of identity. Ashcroft is included and Aluwalia’s (1989) contest to this concept, which

6
he describes as a paradox, a truer reflection of the conflicting identities of people
previously under colonialism and the diaspora as well (p. 2).

Chapter 3’s main focus is the study of the people of Trinidad, central characters in
Selvon’s The Lonely Londoners (1956), in the context of postcolonial theories put
forward by Said and Fanon, views regarding homelessness, the search for identity of
immigrants during the postcolonial era. There is a broad consensus among literary
critics who view The Lonely Londoners as a work that specifically focuses on the
day-to-day life of a sidelined and diasporic group trying to survive in London, the
very heart of colonial power (Ellis 2015, pp. 178-189). Andrew Teverson contests
that in his novel Selvon considers many cultural practices along with those derived
from Europe, used to highlight Caribbean traditions in the West Indies or pinpoint
Caribbean origins in the West (Teverson 2010, p. 204).

In Atlantic Passage, Mark Looker has put forward the view that Selvon was the first
non-white author to pen the daily lives of non-white migrants living in London
during 1950s. To construct such a work it is necessary to indulge in creative pursuits
of cultural and character images (Bentley 2003, p. 41). The Lonely Londoners
provides ample opportunities to use postcolonial theory specifically, within issues
regarding cultural identity crisis in various immigrant populations.

Chapter 4 focuses on V. S. Naipaul’s work, The Mimic Men (1967) and his portrayal
of the search for identity. The central character in this work has regained freedom
from colonial rule but now faces a dilemma in developing his identity (Greenberg
2000, p. 214). He struggles to know whether he should mimic his colonial masters, to
appear different from his brethren, or to take up the masked identity that his people
have adopted in suffering from colonial rule (Tsao 2005). The initial part of Chapter
4 discusses the concept of mimicry put forward Fanon in Black Skin, White Masks
(1967). The concept of mimicry holds great relevance in postcolonial literary works
and has been used in various fictional creations, and analyzed in depth by various
scholars, especially Fanon, who contends that mimicry, ultimately forces the
immigrant to become dual-faced and a copy of his colonial masters (Ram 2013, pp.
736-753). Colonialism thus leads to identity crisis, forcing the colonized to accept
the colonizers’ way of life––Fanon’s title (Black Skins, White masks) itself speaks
volumes about the situation of colonial subjects, who ultimately become imperfect
copies of their colonial masters (Harode 2012, p. 1). Lastly, Chapter 4 considers the

7
views put forward by other scholars, Said in particular, in context of identity crisis at
a global level.

Finally, Chapter 5 discusses the conclusions of the study obtained after a thorough
review of certain postcolonial works in context of various theories put forward by
postcolonial authors regarding the search for identity. Colonial subjects face a
dilemma which will be further studied, their search for identity is rooted in their
colonial past; colonial rule has also affected people who ultimately acquire the
citizenship of their colonial rulers. The way postcolonial identities have been framed
is under impending change where the colonial subjects existing under the umbrella of
multicultural and hybrid cultures must find a balance between copying their colonial
masters and holding onto one’s way of life. The study concludes that colonial powers
have systematically influenced colonial subjects in a way that the latter feel they
have lost a sense of belonging and identification.

In one of the findings postcolonial theories, especially the arguments of Fanon and
Said, are valid in explaining the identity crisis in the literature of the period,
particularly Selvon’s The Lonely Londoners and Naipaul’s The Mimic Men. Both
novels depict the dilemma of immigrants and exiled procolonised people who
experience the hardship of remaining unrecognized as equals by a white community,
instead regarded as inferior. In addition, the study finds that one of the causes of
identity confusion is that during colonization colonizers systematically generalized
the idea of inferiority and instilled it within the awareness of the colonized. This
concept is deeply embedded and reflected in the novels, supported by the theories
that are explored in this dissertation.

8
2. POSTCOLONIAL PERIOD AND LITERATURE: GENERAL

BACKGROUND

2.1. The Postcolonial Atmosphere

"Postcolonial" is a term used to refer to the time when colonies split themselves
within the European colony, resulting in binaries that reflected the colonized and the
colonizers. As stated by Sawant (2014, p.120), the term postcolonialism concerns the
impact of colonialism on cultures and communities that, initially, as historians after
WWII have alluded to, the period of post-independence. Bill Ashcroft et al. (1989a)
state that “more than three-quarters of the general population living of the world
today have had their lives molded by the experience of colonialism” (p. 1). Despite
that political change occurred and numerous nations achieved independence
culturally and economically, numerous difficulties and crises ensued, and
consequently these new nations remained in perplexity about their culture and
identity. The appearance of national and ethnic identity problems, and the
perseverance in a gap between past and present “characterized and reclassified after
the breakdown of the empire, the constant movement in the middle of margin and
center (be it spatially, socially or metaphorically circumscribed), the translation and
reinterpretation of normal history” (Marinescu 2007, p. 90). Thus, as Robert J. C.
Young(2003) states;

“When national sovereignty had finally been achieved, each state moved
from colonial to autonomous, postcolonial status. Independence! However,
in many ways this represented only a beginning, a relatively minor move
from direct to indirect rule, a shift from colonial rule and domination to a
position not so much of independence as of being in-dependence. It is
striking that despite decolonization, the major world powers did not change
substantially during the course of the 20th century.”(p.3)

Truth be told, colonialism was a power control over different cultures by the
colonizer, to which still-colonized individuals remained attached. The battle of

9
colonized subjects for their cultural identity and the social formation of the recently
free nations formed a part of cultural transformation that prompted a conflict with the
colonizer's culture. A large number of those countries were in political, economic,
and cultural crisis.

Though postcolonialism concerns the influence of the legacy of colonial and imperial
powers on communities and nations ruled under European domination, there is a
slight difference between the two terms “colonialism” and “imperialism.” Both
colonialism and imperialism refer to the authority and domination of Western power
over other countries and nations by military, economical, or political means.

There is also an obvious tendency of Western centers, as Adas (1998) argues; “to
relate colonialism to European expansion and supremacy on foreign cultures and
nations” (p. 371). Accordingly, there is a difficulty to differentiate between both
terms. In fact, colonialism as a term points specifically to the historical process
concerning European powers or their posterity in distant places, in contradiction
”imperialism meant to be expanding their empires by invading nearby nations and
countries” (p. 371), while Edward Said differentiates between these terms:
“Imperialism is the dominance of metropolitan power over distant places practically,
ideologically and attitudinally, and colonialism is about implanting settlements in the
distant places” (1994, p. 9). Thus, imperialism is more comprehensive, including
theory and practice, but colonialism is more about practical domination over colonies
and countries.

Nevertheless, the discourse of postcolonial and conventional approach to imperial

account has evidenced prolific new research into these features of imperial history
that were as Barbara Bush (2006) argues:

“previously marginalized in the historiography. Studies influenced by

postcolonial theory have challenged West-centred paradigms of the imperial
past and present. There has been more emphasis on how colonialism was
shaped in struggle and the ways in which colonial discourse and imperial
policies were deeply affected by the actions of the colonized. Finally, new
perspectives on race, class, gender, sexuality, the psychology of violence, the
interplay of economics and culture and the dialectics of the colonial
encounter, areas formerly neglected or marginalized in imperial histories,
have provided a more nuanced understanding of empires and their
aftermath.”( p.5)
I would here to confirm that, as a PhD researcher, prefer to use the term “ Post
Imperial” rather than “Post colonial” since Post imperial is more comprehensive,

10
which covers ideology and practice, while Postcolonialism is about practice. İn
addition, postcolonialism concerns both concepts “ imperialism” and “ colonialism”
then post imperialism more fits with varities that the decipline discusses.

What delineates postcolonial time is the refusal of colonialism and a search for
individuality to affirm independence. Moreover, population movement and migration
from previous colonies to the colonizer's countries make new hybrid societies that
conflict with one another culturally on one hand and, on the other hand, that instill
conflict between the residents and vagrants. Ashcroft et al. (1989a) argue that “all
postcolonial societies are still subject in somehow to plain or inconspicuous types of
colonial domination, and independence has not tackled this problem” (p. 2).

Ethnic conflict is another element of postcolonial period deserted in view of colonial

policies directed in the colonies, particularly in Africa and Asia. The ethnic sector’s
battles are for independence or to be perceived as equal to one another. Colonial
powers made hierarchal social orders in their colonies that are heterogeneous
ethnically. So, after the liberation of colonies, the entombed ethnic rivalry was
uncovered, particularly in previous British colonies, on the grounds that “the British
did not adequately separate the traditional structures that encourage different ethnics
to live together” (Blanton, Mason & Athow 2001, p. 473). Moreover, the effect of
creolization continued even after of the procedure of decolonization; this marvel
remained as representative of Caribbean communities, where different groups from
distinctive cultures and ethnics were brought for work by colonial powers.
Caribbeans avoided digesting this sort of hybridization when they lost the feeling of
being natives, or began to fit in with the colonizer. By and large, the postcolonial air
was overpowered by strains of the battles fought by recently liberated states to
accomplish their cultural, political, and psychologically recognizable proof, in turn
reflecting their security, and buttressed by their determination, not to be perceived as
simply forced by a colonizer.

2.2 Postcolonial Identity Issues

The identity question is the most pressing issue in postcolonial time and literature,
and must be respected as the most imperative for its crisis existing in all postcolonial
communities. Because of the circumstances of the postcolonial period, and the risky
conditions that confronted newly freed nations and countries in their quest for and

11
arrangement of their distinctive identity, the crisis at first glance seemed obscured.
The issue of identity is not a reasoned and settled idea, as may be envisioned, but a
crisis of identity turned into a phenomenon in postcolonial scene, as Mercer argues,
where “character just turns into an issue when it is in crisis, when something thought
to be altered, intelligible and stable is dislodged by the experience of uncertainty and
instability” (Mercer 1990, p. 43); in the accompanying World War II, the
decolonization of nations under colonial tenet incited an important move toward
reproducing social and individual identities. The period, likewise, was marked by
battles of liberation at all levels of life: culture, economy, arts, and so on, that
demanded a recapture of actual identity, previously lost by the powers of
colonization.

Edward Said argues the historical truth of the revival of nationalism of general
populations, their identity assertion leaving new cultural practices as an assembled
political power emerged and, after that, raised the struggle against authority in the
non-European world (Said 1993, p. 218). As indicated by the Oxford English
definition, identity is characterized as "the certainty of being who or what a man or
thing is." Identity as a term is derived from the Latin word identitas, which means
sameness. Philosophically, identity is defined as the affiliation each thing carries
only to itself. And the psychological meaning of identity includes the characteristics,
individualities, beliefs, expressions, and views that construct a person or group.
While the idea of identity in sociology is understood as one of social appearance, self
appreciation, and looks that express their uniqueness and differentiate from others,
such as national, cultural and gender identities. And cultural studies has embraced
the notion that identities are paradoxical and dislocate or intersect each other. No
single identity acts as an overshadowing, systematized identity, rather, identities alter
due to how subjects are signified or deal with. in the postcolonial setting, as Stuart
Hallconfirms the concept of identity (1990) “is not as transparent or unproblematic
as we think" (p.222) and it is a mind-boggling idea much harder to characterize.

The distinguishing proof of an individual or a gathering or a nation, in postcolonial

terms, as one notices effortlessly, is that they perceive themselves as “us” with the
presence of the contrary “other.” Otherness is an element of perceiving identity in
postcolonial time, in which, likewise, it implies a twofold nature, so that each other,
each not quite the same as and barred by the other, is rationally perceived and

12
incorporates ”the qualities and significance of the colonizer’s culture even as it
rejects its power to characterize" (Sinha 2008, p. 4). What's more, this parallel
connection makes for a sort of separate identity and clears the hierarchal
circumstances of the period. The national identity framed in the postcolonial era is
never accepted as settled and is changing, as indicated by environment and culture,
as a result of exchange and power which prompts disarray in identity. Since identity
is unsteady, an altered idea, as Hall affirms, of "personality rises as a sort of troubled
space or an uncertain inquiry in that space, between various converging talks" (Hall
1989, p. 10). The effect of colonialism is multi-dimensional other than that an
alternate outcome of colonialism in distinctive areas, the issue of identity shows up
in diverse shapes and frames.

Singularand aggregate identities additionally vary, both physically and

psychologically. The decolonization procedure and the resistance to the colonial
power took different blueprints because of countries, social orders, and people. In
this manner, identity is not simply forced. It is also chosen, and utilized gradually, in
agreement inside the social milieu of demands and limitations.

For instance, the identity crisis in Caribbean locales lies in the difficulties and
interrelated procedure of colonization. Caribbean culture “bears the abuse of the
colonial legacy and its misuse” (Guruprasad 2014, p. 27). Also in Africa's British
colonialism where, as Bonnici observes, "diverse structures and local people groups
responded to [identity] in an unexpected way" (2004, p. 6). Besides this, the bedlam
left behind in making a sort of framework in locations, particularly in Africa, added
to the identity an extra unresolvable quandary. In a nutshell, as Mahmood Mamdani
notes, in Africa colonialism was not just about the identity of who controlled the
power, white or European; it was considerably about the establishments they made to
empower the minority over the majority” (Mandani 2005, p. 16). So, talking about
identity and the identity question in postcolonial times is convoluted because of its
different engagements and circumstances.

People move and immigrate for various reasons, one of which, the concern of this
study, is the result of colonist. From the perspective of postcolonialism, the general
population moving were either obliged to for migration or exiled. This move is the
movement at the primary position of cultural movement; the location change and
experience of new cultures, without a doubt, is one of the crucial inquiries of identity

13
in the postcolonial period. Along these lines, in postcolonial grounds, diasporic space
makes a movement in adding new implications to identity. Nevertheless, as Bonnici
argues, posterity in the diasporas develops distinctive cultures, from the area where
they live now, keeping and amplifying their unique cultures. These hybrid cultures
“address the myth of the European culture and check the glory of nativism and the
obligatory come back to the traditional cultures" (Bonnici 2004, p. 2).

Michel Wieviorka argues that, since the 1960s, diasporas have changed strikingly,
shaping the representation of the persistent techniques of deconstructing and
developing identities. Despite that, the diaspora is a combination of conduct, with
which even the accompanying eras retain tight relations, and with the home nation or
with comparable social orders that have the same birthplace in countries other than
their own (Wieviorka 2002, pp. 472-73) The crisis of diasporic gatherings changes,
as indicated by national methods for grouping and their perspective of the
significance of citizenship and how they asses the outcasts. As Brodwin Paul states,
worldwide diasporic gatherings unite in recognizing such ways of assessment, and
they will weave or oppose their prohibition with a distinctive result. Their diasporic
subjectivity, in this manner, will depend as much on the countries and groups who
reside near them as on disjoined transnational procedures (Brodwin 2003, pp. 283-
84) The most evident example of feeling identity crisis inside transient gatherings, as
Clifford focuses on, is the disarray of “living here” and “recollecting there” (Clifford
1997, p. 255). This perplexity between two states of being impacts individuals in the
process of developing identities, which one can notice without much of a stretch; this
is about space or area, more than identified with time. Therefore, we can consider
diasporas to infer not as a matter of being an outcast, and living inside the limitation
of another state, but as somewhat a part of ethnic identity that is shared by their
cultural tradition and having a place and a dialect that entwines them within these
angles, taking an interest in the identity development.

Moreover, the blend of diverse cultures brought about new cultural identities in
postcolonial time. In this manner, the idea and the presence of new importance and
complication of identity came to being, a blend appears as the result of colonizer and
colonized. The new significance of identity is an unpredictable one, with half-breed
social orders of colonizers and colonized, implying that the other at any rate is no
more other. Postcolonial identity is not curved to paired relations, but rather

14
somewhat in the middle of them, as Helen Tiffin contends; it concerns a convincing
relationship between the colonial tradition and the craving to create a distinctive
identity (Tiffin 1989, p. 95)

In another perspective, dislocation relates psychologically as having an ambivalent

feeling, whether physically or figuratively displaced, while having the sensation of
being occupied by the other. That is related to what immigrants experience around
the problem of personality, notwithstanding when at home yet dislodged by the other
culture. Martin Genetsch alludes to a thought that displacement is not acknowledged
as a probability or as binaries from restrictions; yet “relocation is conceptualized as
the social frameworks loss which have enriched an individual's existence with
significance and psycho-social stability” (Genetsch 2003, p. 209). According to
Sandra Ponsazi, displacement is a part of postcolonial expression (Ponsazi 2004, p.
11) as it is additionally one of the migration consequences.

As it is seen with the standards of dislodgment, the issue will be joined with alternate
inquiries of the postcolonial identity, for example diasporas, where the subject of
identity turns out to be more complex. Jopi Nyman alludes to one of such
complexities when he argues that, in dislocation the limits––in the middle of home
and world––get confounded and the private and common in general intermixed with
each other (Nyman 2007, p. 197); then, for this situation the subject of identity
becomes difficult to manage. The identity creation is coordinated with a more
extensive significance and constraint between diverse cultures. The envisioning of
identity through displacement could be imagined as visioning one's self from two
mindsets, viewing home from outside and vice versa. Uprooted individuals, as Roger
Bromley affirms, are described by "marginalized identities.” Dislodging and
migration have prompted a battle for spaces where "identity is interminably
developed, and deconstructed, crosswise over contrast and against set inside/outside
oppositions" (Bromley 2000, p. 5).

In the contemporary world, while discussing identity issues, it is necessary to

mention multiculturalism and its connection to postcolonial identity. As a term,
multiculturalism refers to cultural differences linked together in a particular
demographic space; could it be a country, a city, district or places like universities. It
also implies the thoughts and theories that support these differences and its
constitution. Accordingly, multiculturalism and multicultural community is imagined

15
as a group of diverse people, each reflecting its specific identity with no difficulty.
Furthermore, as Gunew argues, “the tide of migrants, diasporas, fugitives and their
affiliation with nation-states is considered. The reason for continuing to focus on
multiculturalism is because it is strongly attached to the world with those practices
and discourses which manage diversity” (Gunew 1997, p. 22). The strategies and
ideas of multiculturalism move in different directions; multiculturalism encourages
an equivalent esteem for society’s mosaic in one direction, but also the sustainment
of cultural differences, finally to promote this diversity culturally and ethnically
according to specification by the ruling system.

This ruling system adopts different strategies in dealing with multicultural societies,
either by focusing on communication between diverse components, or to spotlight
the distinctiveness of each that shape the assortment structure without assimilation.
Thus, multiculturalism is connected to the contrast between different identities and a
strategy for reassessing the power relation that marked the superiority of one above
the other. Multiculturalism is still bringing about debates and arguments, officially,
socially, and even academically, especially in countries composed of diverse
cultures. The strain in multicultural societies is caused by the authoritarian power,
which forms hierarchal relationships among different components. Here, it is worth
differentiating between multicultural and multiculturalism in which multicultural
alludes to the diversity of cultures while multiculturalism is the strategy of the
authorities that manage the multicultural assortment in a given place. To speak of
multiculturalism within a postcolonial limitation, is to attest to a dilemma caused by
colonial heritage and the ethnic rivalry appearing soon after decolonization.

In addition, postcolonial identity is an outcome of the mixture of hybrid diasporic

gathering; as Pieters argues, the new form of identity is a reference to the real
changes that occurred as a result of migration and multiculturalism (2001, p. 221).
Thus, it is not easy to grasp the nature of relations between postcolonialism and
multiculturalism. The latter focuses on the differences and ways that treat
multicolored compositions of societies and nations; postcolonialism is understood by
the clearcut heritage of colonialism. In a nutshell, identity by all accounts stands as
an imperative issue. It concerns taking an interest in incorporating postcolonial
conditions, and is at the heart of the principle concerns that ought to be researched
throughout postcolonial studies.

16
2.3. Postcolonial Novel

2.3.1 Postcolonial novel: Introduction

The following the discussion is centered on the postcolonial novel, particularly

novels selected for this study. Ashcroft et al. (1989a) argue that literature offers one
of the most vital courses in which the postcolonial period's observations are
communicated and the everyday substance experienced by colonized groups have
been powerfully recorded, thus significantly relevant. (p. 1) Postcolonial novelists,
particularly scholars in previous British colonies, the center of the present study,
have attracted readers and the attention of literature prize coordinators. Also, as
Christopher O'Reilly (2001) states, "the mark 'postcolonial' requests a movement in
concentrate, far from British (literature created by British scholars) to literatures in
English" (2001, p. 7).As a consequence of this movement it was unavoidable that the
postcolonial novel moved from the previous conventions of style and subject to
methods for communicating issues concerning individuals, social orders, and peoples
of the time, as Bill Ashcroft and et al. describe;

“What each of these literatures has in common beyond their special

and distinctive regional characteristics is that they emerged in their
present form out of the experience of colonization and asserted
themselves by foregrounding the tension with the imperial power ,and by
emphasizing their differences from the assumptions of the imperial
centre. It is this which makes them distinctively post-colonial.” (1989a,
p.02)
Postcolonial novelists grade to "different methodologies keeping in mind the end
goal to recuperate the impacts that colonialism left on the colonized peoples” (Tas
2011, p. 101). Postcolonial novels drew attention with inquiries and issues, for
example, diasporas, multiculturalism, and identity issues. Postcolonial novelists write
in a counterpoint to the structures, styles, and topics of English literature, "in contrast
as opposed to the irresolute type of imitation; a distinction, besides, which empowers
them, in Rushdie's words, to 'straddle two cultures” (Nyman 2007, p. 71). Moreover,
as Klee and Siddiq note, "the novel is in no way, shape or form a hapless casualty in
the frequently brutal show. In spite of the fact that essentially a literary class, the
novel regardless serves as a specialist of cultural and historical change” (2007, p.
xiii).

The postcolonial novel additionally drew from a delineation of the hazardous

circumstance of immigration, one of the consequences of colonial politics and an

17
undeniable aftermath of the postcolonial world. Racism, displacement, and exile are
reflected in the majority of these literary works, for example, the novels of Selvon
and Naipaul. They refer to the legacy and politics of colonialism; hence, the
postcolonial novel is "an answer on a minor scale to the domineering power, the
literature delivered by the colonized is separated and makes itself into a will to
particularism” (Fanon 1963, p. 237).

The principal subjects of postcolonial novels fluctuate, yet for the most part these
works portray battles against the challenge of constructing their own particular
identity next to the flux of economy and cultural perplexity. In addition, the
postcolonial novelists depict the reluctant cultural and national identities of groups
trying to develop their nations in the wake of liberation. At a psychological level,
numerous novels investigate the pressure of keeping harmony of the previous
colonizer and immigrant lives, with the clash between their new governing
framework and ways of life. The subject of exile and communicating the contention
of immigrant involvement in places of their colonizers is one of the impressive
countenances of postcolonial novel, which incorporates into an extensive variety of
their composition. The migrant experience, recorded so disjunctively by postcolonial
novelists, turns into a piece of the material of British literary custom; however, this
history has not accordingly been transformed into “safe” or “settled” for the present
as they “come across a new world, a new customs to which you have to adjust while
struggling to maintain your own recognizable forms of identity.” (Young,2003,
p.12)

The postcolonial novel has demonstrated an immeasurable contribution to the literary

coliseum of the world, particularly to English literature. The postcolonial studies and
literature are essentially incorporated into any syllabi of literature in English.
Perhaps, as Bonnici remarks, “the most exceptional thing is that the contemporary
literature in English is significantly relying upon the literature drawing nearer from
post colonial writers living in Britain or the United States, however, were brought up
in previous colonies (Bonnici 2004, p. 1).

2.3.2 The theme of identity in the postcolonial novel

Postcolonial theorists and critics have considered the issue of identity as one of vital
exchange, and the real subjects in progress written in the postcolonial period,

18
particularly the novel, have been the breaking down of the self and the crisis
experienced by previously colonized people, the essential effects of colonialism on
the local culture (Sheoran 2014, p. 1). Along these lines, postcolonial novelists
uncovered and communicated the states of the dilemma of identity that arose in this
period. Their novels rarely strayed from the subject of diasporas, immigrants, and
issues associated with identity. One of worries of postcolonial novelists, in their
account is the subject of "cultural diversity and wavering towards the colonial legacy
and identity" (McCarthy et al. 1995, p. 250).

Novelists such as Naipaul and Selvon portray the situation of the immigrant quest for
significance and identity. Naipaul's The Mimic Men and Selvon's The Lonely
Londoners plainly display how immigrants struggle for the making of identity and
resistance to keeping it. In another point of view, and in association with British
imperial power in numerous postcolonial novels, London itself turns into a vital
setting. Rebecca Dyer argues that, in The Lonely Londoners, Selvon by imagining
genuine London destinations, and putting transient characters inside them, stakes his
and other colonial vagrants' case to the area most typical of the British imperialism
and culture (Dyer 2002, p. 108). The Lonely Londoners delineates the experience of
transients in London, depicting how they confront sentiments of displacement and
identity loss. As MacPhee (2011) argues, this includes regularly submerged ways,
and illuminates originations of individual and aggregate identity (p. 3).

The postcolonial novels chosen for this study delineate the colonized individual’s
dilemma in building or finding an identity, one that separates them from what the
colonial framework gave them. Additionally, these novels concern the articulation of
the immigrant search for identity while confronting an uncomely sentiment, the
difficulty of acknowledgment and attempting to show their identity through conduct
and convention. Numerous postcolonialism literary critics see the novel as a printed
space worried with imagining the particular encounters of underestimated
immigrants experiencing the colonial focal point of London. In the novel, as Andrew
Teverson argues, European imposed customs takes place close by the different
conventions and work to express either the colonial identity inside of the West Indies
or inside of the diasporas (Teverson 2010, p. 204). Mark Looker, refers to Selvon as
a pioneer in developing a representation of the encounters and lives of black
immigrants in London in the Fifties. Selvon’s procedure essentially includes a

19
component of the creative experiment as far as the development of a particular
subcultural identity (Bentley 2003, p. 41). His novels form a prolific territory for
applying postcolonial theory, particularly in the contentions that relate to the
emergencies of identity in subcultural migrant groups. The imperial look of the
immigrants associates mutilates his self-identity while his dark endeavors against
imperialism by means of imagining London as a home.

The presentation of identity and its crisis in the novel is open for perusing on
numerous levels; a vital novel unravels the exhibition of colonial arrangements and
the path in which these approaches have gotten to be embodied by the individuals
who have concentrated on Western ideological frameworks and therefore have been
under the sponsorship of a particular sort of colonial ideology (Hughes 2011, p. 4).
The crisis of identity in Naipaul’s novel The Mimic Men (1967) is a primary topic;
Naipaul's hero in The Mimic Men experiences being unable to form a unique identity,
caught vulnerably emulating the colonizer (Tsao, 2005). The effect of colonialism on
the individual’s sense of identity thus leads to the impersonation of the colonizer’s
tradition (Harode 2012, p. 1). So, the subject of identity and its complication is the
most essential, one that novelists in postcolonial period portrayed and communicated
in their works. They found it difficult to avoid identity, and turned this into a primary
element of the postcolonial novel, and of literature generally.

2.4 Conclusion

The postcolonial era describes the conditions and parts of colonization. The battle
included the newly free states in declaring their own distinguishing proof, tested by
numerous issues and crisis, above all the legacy of colonialism. Issues that
overwhelmed the entire outcome of postcolonial time are locations of difficulty; for
example, diasporas and immigrants that promptedthe feeling of a confounding
acknowledgment of identity. The literature of the postcolonial period and,
exceptionally, the novel composed by essayists from ex-colonized countries,
managed this crisis and communicated it within the novel. Moreover, the distinction
of postcolonial issues and its complication appears to change perspectives and form
diverse reactions about identity development in postcolonial period.

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3. IDENTITY CRISIS IN POSTCOLONIAL THEORY

3.1 Introduction

This chapter presents a theoretical background of the research. First, it presents

postcolonial theory and its emergence from the fallout of colonial impact on the
world after WWII. It reveals insight into historical actualities and traces the
sequential line of thought and speculation of the period, how the issue of
representation and self determination is displayed in theoretical argument. At that
point I clarify the issue of identity in the postcolonial theoretical line, and its critical
role as the real issue of postcolonial theory. The chapter additionally uncovers how
scholars explore the situation of recognition and self-recognizable proof. Finally, I
clarify significant theorist contentions about identity independently and in agreement
to the sequential course of events, for example, Frantz Fanon, Edward Said. I note
how every scholar viewed and hypothesized the issue of identity and to what extent
these speculations are essential in postcolonial studies. The purpose of this part is to
set up the theoretical foundation for the entire study, inquiring into what speculations
are substantial to the explanation and interpretation in applying them to the selected
novels.

3.2 Postcolonial Theory and the Question of Identity

Postcolonial theory, or postcolonialism, can be characterized as the investigation of

colonial impact, and its legacy from post-WWII to the present day. It explores the
socio-political, psychological, and political impact of the colonial legacy.
Postcolonial theory also handles the investigation of the conduct of recently free
social orders, as they struggle for self determination. It considers the test and refusal
of colonial social and political guidelines, and frameworks that were abandoned and
overwhelmed colonizers for quite a while. Postcolonial theory additionally
examining literary types and cultural viewpoints identified with the cutting edge after

21
colonialism wanes, all through diverse ways and strategies. Ashcroft et al. (1989a)
affirm that postcolonial literary theory appears after the failure of Western theory to
bargain adequately the complications and different cultural determinations of
postcolonial composing (p. 11). Since the publication of Said’s Orientalism in the
late of 1970s, postcolonial theory and studies have taken an interest in the ranges of
sociopolitical and literary feedback, with alternate points of view and contentions.
The distinction of the fields and the different states of postcolonial circumstance
have received assorted responses in both postcolonial theory and studies. Darby and
Paolini (1994) characterize post-colonialism as hunting down or recovering the
moral and passionate position in addressing Western advancement, directed by
experts of the developing nations, or researchers from West. The movement of such a
procedure is on the edge, resulting in a noteworthy method and a progressive
viewpoint;

“postcolonialism has tended to be allembracing and, ironically, it has acted

to "colonize" and refashion aspects of scholarship previously the domain of
Western academe, such as literature, history, and social theory. Ideas about
the emotional stance and radical space cleared by postcolonialism” (Darby &
Paolini, 1994, p. 379).
Thus, scholars find numerous perspectives that focus on managing theoretical
application in distinctive postcolonial fields. It is worth mentioning that colonial
power administered to over 80% of the world for over three centuries before its
breakdown following World War II. The impact of the imperial period and the
aftermath of decolonization coordinated the literary and theoretical enthusiasm for its
diverse issues, in which the much touted encounters of the ex-colonized countries
recommended that the postcolonial era could be a free world. Thus, there is no
altered physical definition for the term postcolonial since, as Ashcroft et al. (1989a)
argued, the colonized cultures were influenced completely by the colonial movement
from the start of colonialism up to the present day (p. 2). Many experts and scholars
assumed a part in the advancement of postcolonial theory; Innes names four
exceptional figures that "show up over and over as scholars who have formed
postcolonial theory: Frantz Fanon, Edward Said, Homi Bhabha, and Gayatri
Chakravorty Spivak" (Innes 2007, p. 5). Thus, postcolonial theory and response, in
the lion's share of critics and scholars, emerges from the legacy of colonialism, as
Bhabha (1994) attests; postcolonial perspectives rise up out of the colonial evidence
of third world countries and the talks of "minorities" inside of the geopolitical

22
divisions. These points of view include cutting edge ideological talks that endeavor
to standardize the administration of the equivalent development, histories of social
orders, race and nations (p. 171).

Hence, postcolonial theory and studies manage distinctive decolonization groups and
propensities, however gathered inside of its fringe and contentions. The guarantee of
postcolonial theory is bound to the perspectives and encounters of nations that have
lived and experienced colonial powers. As Young (2001) argues, postcolonial
feedback focuses on authoritarian control that was in power in the world (p. 11).
Thus, postcolonial theory and feedback fails to include the precise encounters of
colonial history; rather, it concerns the aftermath of colonialism. Additionally,
postcolonial theory and studies inspect social orders and nations whose encounters
battle for a space in a world in which the question of recognition turns into a primary
dilemma.

Thus, the most disputable and significant issues of postcolonial theory and studies is
the subject of identity. Since the outbreaks of independence battles of recently
liberated nations, for their own particular identity, and with the expansion of settler
numbers and the constitution of countries with distinctive cultural diversities, the
topic of identity has risen to the top. Jones Brockimeier and Donal Carbaugh (2001)
argue that the concept of identity occupies a large part of scholarly issues that have
been contemplated in an assortment of differing theoretical perspectives. The ascent
of the topic of identity turned into a noteworthy topic in theory and literary studies as
well as stretching out to the entire range of life. The larger part of scholars and critics
have related the complication of identity issues to the colonial effect, as Pieterse
(2002) argues: at the season of decolonization, when imperial identities were
decentered, the subject of identity became a basic and noticeable topic” (p. 22).
Theoretically, identity is argued primarily in the connection between self and other
and where instability resides inside of the confinement of the space between
identities, as Stuart Hall observes: “character develops as a sort of troubled space or
an indecisive inquiry in that space, between various meeting talks” (1989, p. 10).
Scholars reached a more noteworthy aim: to clarify the postcolonial identity crisis in
light of its role as an essential component of the many-sided quality, coming into
being after colonialism. Ashcroft, Griffiths, and Tiffin (1989) affirm identity inquiry
as a “noteworthy part of postcolonial literature, in which it manages place and

23
displacement. Inside of this specific postcolonial crisis of identity, the worry emerges
with the improvement or recuperation of a powerful relationship recognizing the
middle of self and place” (p. 8). Thus, scholars have become interested in inspecting
and researching, explaining and presenting contentions about this significant issue.

3.3 Theoritical Viewpoints on Postcolonial Identity: Fanon and Said

Regarding theorists arguments about identity formation and its crisis in postcolonial
era, there are different analyses and contentions, but with a quiet consent that the
existence and complexities of the dilemma forms the primary outcome and explicit
consequences of colonialism. We begin with Fanon, whose view of identity was
based on the fierce historical association of the colonized and the colonizers. His
contentions identified the impact of the savage legacy of imperialism on the identity
production of the colonized as argued by Richards (2011): that libration is not
adequate to remove the impact of colonialism and to recapture the sensation of
identity (p. 11). Fanon, in his theoretical contentions, ascribes a more noteworthy
aim in the outcomes of colonialism and the change framed by the experience of
immigration; he analyzes, as Ryan (2012) states, the experience of wearing “white
masks” to cope with the West, or turning from one's own particular identity to appear
to the colonizer in an image that prevents all debased attributes that show the
colonized as “primitive” (pp. 117-118). Drawing on the 1950's philosophical ground
of existentialism; “Existentialism”, the philosophical theory which holds a further set
of categories, governed by the norm of authenticity, is necessary to grasp human
existence. central to existentialism, it is equally true that all the themes popularly
associated with existentialism—dread, boredom, alienation, the absurd, freedom,
commitment, nothingness, and so on—find their philosophical significance in the
context of the search for a new categorial framework, together with its governing
norm, Fanon's theoretical contention exhibited through his vow to the Algerian
transformation, in which his thought regarding identity development came out
through opposition to the colonial legacy of racist based hostility against Africans. In
Black Skin White Masks (1967), Fanon uncovers the black man's worries in the
breakout of postcolonial period. His treatment of racism psychoanalytically is an
ironic perusing of the black man's breakdown. His contention provocatively advises
that black men attempt to look like or to appear whites; yet in the guarantees of white

24
men, black men will not be endorsed. This negative perspective from Fanon derives
from the bases of a time when a group judged blacks by their color.

“Every colonized people—in other words, every people in whose soul an

inferiority complex has been created by the death and burial of its local
cultural originality—finds itself face to face with the language of the
civilizing nation; that is, with the culture of the mother country. The
colonized is elevated above his jungle status in proportion to his adoption of
the mother country’s cultural standards. He becomes whiter as he renounces
his blackness, his jungle.”( Fanon, 1967, p.9)
The sort of racism argued by Fanon in the imagistic title Black Skin White Masks, as
Larose T. Parris (2015) notes, clearly pronounces the system Fanon uses to
investigate the colonized crisis of “self-recognizable proof” (p. 12). To Fanon the
genuine identity is confined inside of the comparison of black and white, the skin and
the veil. The black man wears a veil under the effect of colonial impact, which
contorts blacks to act naturally. Fanon relates this to the outcomes of colonialism
when he argues white man's advancement and culture have implemented an
“existential digression on the negro” (1967, p. 12). We might consider a finding from
this Fanonian view, that Western power profoundly embedded the colonized
presence in their culture as well as in the individual's self-regard, seeing himself
unequal to the colonizer or, as such, the colonizer perspectives unrivaled, which
forces this predominance over the colonized.

The significance of identity becomes a hazardous crisis inside the confinement of

refusal and the conflict to demonstrate one's self to the other. This treatment of
Western power to subjects made a psychological and dysfunctional behavior. As
Richards (2011) calls attention to the “assaults the identity substance in the colonized
by instigating a type of psychological illness” (p. 11) and by that he is refereeing to
Fanon’s (1967) psychological analysis of the effects of colonial violence on
colonized people;

“The Negro’s behaviour makes him akin to an obsessive neurotic type, or, if
one prefers, he puts himself into a complete situational neurosis. In the man
of colour there is a constant effort to run away from his own individuality, to
annihilate his own presence , , The attitude of the Black man toward the
white, or toward his own race, often duplicates almost completely a
constellation of delirium, frequently bordering on the region of the
pathological. ( p.60)
To challenge the problem of colonial impact, Fanon focuses on the crisis of identity
as found in the contention of hovering on one being or seen as the “other.” Fanon
(1967) argues that “a black man thinks himself to become whiter by utilizing the

25
dialect of the white man, by taking upon himself the world of the other” (p. 38).
Therefore, during to the struggle against colonization, blacks under the psychological
weight of their mediocrity attempt to demonstrate recognizable proof that they are
equal to whites, and "need to demonstrate to white men no matter what, the wealth of
their idea, the equivalent estimation of their insight” (Fanon 1967, p. 10).

This sort of black men’s conduct, to imitate the colonizer, is the aftereffect of the
colonial impact on their awareness, which evidently influenced by methodical
strategy of white man's goal, to sum up and apply the colonial belief system of power
and predominance on the other, to make the colonized oblivious to the genuine
distinguishing proof that separates them and to give them the merited assessment as
people, not as becoming an impersonation of the white, thus valueless. The focal
point of Fanon’s discussion is that the white man, or colonizer, purposefully
solidifies the awareness of the black man, or colonized, by enforcing their discourse
during colonization, which devalues the colonized with a specific end goal: to show
how they are unequal. The blacks or colonized are obliged to “surmise that they are
by nature irrational and uncultured, lacking ethical qualities; so, they require
education, civilization to be brought to them. This degradation requires the
affirmation of identity and ritual of local methods for living and history” (p. 129). In
general, Fanon's Black Skin, White Masks investigates the brainwashing of
colonialism and uncovers the impacts it made on the awareness of colonized
individuals, and the resulting disarray and loss of identity.

Similar to Fanon's idea of the power domination of colonizers, and its impact on the
colonized culturally, financially, psychologically, and forcing their prevalence, Said,
in Orientalism (1978), develops his contention of separating the world into two
binaries: Orient and Occident, East and West. While Fanon's contentions for the most
part concern the psychoanalytic zone, Said connected with political discourse.
Constructing his argument with respect to Foucaultian thought on power and
knowledge, Said translates the connection between colonial powers and colonized
individuals and countries. His essential issue of identity development, as Ashcroft
and Aluhwalia (1991) argue, is the capability of the colonized to oppose, to recreate
oneself as an anti-imperialist subject and that this diversion of the self should be
contextualized in light that it is the development of identity that constitutes binaries

26
and people are what they make themselves, regardless of the possibility of being
subjects of authoritarian discourse (p. 112)

Said (1978)utilizes Foucault's expository approach to clarify his theory of Western

colonialism and its rationale of power, connecting it to works composed by Western
writers about the Orient. Said uncovers, as Jan Nederveen Pieterse states, the way
others are spoken to in discussion reflects winning administrations of knowledge and
their truth claims, and in the process representation itself turns into a type of power;

“Edward Said (1978) applied Foucault's method of discourse analysis to the

texts produced by European orientalists about the "Orient," the colonized
world. In this view, the way others are represented in talk or discourse
reflects prevailing regimes of knowledge and their truth claims, and in the
process representation itself becomes a form of power. Foucault's post-
structuralism broke with the idea of cultures as systemic structures and
shifted attention to structures of knowledge within and across cultures
instead.” (2002, p. 23)
Said's point of view of identity develops through the binary relation between West
and East, which is, as he calls it, Eurocentric’ he concentrates on the perspective that
the identity is given by Western dominion. He views truth as characterized by the
people who control the power, in this way knowledge and power of the West, or
colonizers, empowers them to evaluate and to arrange colonized knowledge on the
grounds that this authorized them to characterize knowledge with their power. This
thought leads them to regard the colonizers as unrivaled.

Thus, the fundamental point in Said's contention is that colonial individuals are
settled and bound to belief system strategies of the colonizer and they have
effectively affected the colonized by this rationale. Identity, then, is envisioned and
arranged inside of the constraints of Western or Occidental knowledge, in light of
this construction colonized are not able to recognize themselves outside this
Orientalist view. Ashcroft and Alohaiwa (1991) clarify Said's contention of the
cultural foundations of the West as accountable for making out these others, by
distinguishing subjects from masters. Therefore, Said’s concept of identity
development is attached to this rationale in which he concentrates on the identity of
the East. To say the colonized ought to oppose the power of the West, and reject the
forced identity and the creation of one of their own, depends on this rationale as
argued by Said beginning with the publication of Orientalism and in different works
speculating on the importance of resistance in the postcolonial period. He imagines
that the empowerment of the Western plan essentially occurred because of an

27
absence of resistance, the reason of subordination of the Orient and to ensue after
Orientalist domination. In this way, Said gives a more prominent aim of resistance
during decolonization, as “the last resistance we have against the cruel practices and
treacheries that deform mankind's history” (1978, p. xxiii).

Said presents a significant critical perception in The World, The Text, and the Critic
(1983), in which his argument circles around the “worldliness” of the text. His term
“worldliness” suggests that literary works consistently involve the surrounding
circumstances that created them. Ashcroft and Ahluwalia (1991) confirm that “The
paradox of Edward Said's identity is the imperative aspect of his personal
‘worldliness,' a feature which affords crucial to the interests and convictions of his
cultural theory” (p. 5). This identity is itself a text, which is continually clarified and
repeated by Said, intersecting with and articulated by all the other texts he writes.
Alongside these lines, worldliness is linked to the accordance with the work's root,
because this agent encloses the reality of the subjects that it bears such as;
marginality, dispossession, subjugation. Thus, texts to Said represent cultural
intentions and attitudes and are not an equal interchange between these; the excursive
condition, rather, resembles the “relationship between colonizer and colonized,
oppressor and oppressed" (Said 1983, p. 47). Texts and words related to the world, to
an extent that their capacity and usage "are matters of ownership, authority, power
and the imposition of force" (p. 47). It is exactly from this uneven relation that
“Orientalism as an academic approach emerged” (p. 47). Said’s main basics of power
relations repeat here and he argues that cultures attempt to impose their hegemony
over other cultures to assert themselves through different ways (p. 14). Ashcroft and
Ahluwalia (1991) suggest that filiations and affiliation distinguish Said's worldliness.
To Said, in the modern civilization, it is hard to maintain filiations and is substituted
by forms of affiliation that culture constitutes identification (p. 25).

In this way, Said, as usual, remains in the circle of binary relation, as in his usage of
the idea of affiliation and depicting of the affiliation system that binds “colonized
societies to imperial culture" and within ‘contrapuntal ensembles’ cultural identities
are comprehended” ( Said 1993, p. 60) to understand the meaning of contrapuntal
which he borrowed from music Said elaborates;

In practical terms, ‘contrapuntal reading’ as I have called it means reading a

text with an understanding of what is involved when an author shows, for
instance, that a colonial sugar plantation is seen as important to the process

28
 of maintaining a particular style of life in England . . . the point is that
contrapuntal reading must take account of both processes, that of
imperialism and that of resistance to it, which can be done by extending our
reading of the texts to include what was once forcibly excluded ( Said, 1993,
pp.61-67)
In this case identities are recognized through the network of cultural system that
constitutes oppositions as superior and inferior which originally created by the
dominant imperial body.

This viewpoint is a marginalized understanding to identity construction. Said’s

reading of Western literature, from his readings of Conrad, for instance, is that the
power system of the West works within the thematic formation in novels. Said
relates the text to its world, which is colonialist view of the world. Though he claims
a secular criticism, his viewpoints come out as a marginalized view of the world. His
contention to build a true identity of the inferior is to resist the hierarchy imposition
of the superior over them, to tell the reality and truth. As Ashcroft and Ahluwaia
(1991) interpreted this power of resistance––to tell “truth” to oppression. Not only do
humans make their truths, but “the so-called objective truth of the white man’s
superiority built and maintained by the classical European colonial empires also
rested on a violent subjugation of African and Asian peoples” (Ashcroft, p. 39)

The world today is engaged with a new storm of immigrants and refugees, and
everywhere people move about, leaving one place, finding another; in particular,
Western countries have become tents embracing different cultures and nationalities.
In such conditions a new sense of cultural identities, experiencing the feeling
rootlessness and homelessness, have become the norm. Exile and the case of
immigrants are reflected in Said’s works as an essential basic for understanding the
culture and identity in the contemporary world in reference to its strong tie with any
notion of home that is left.

Said has theorized the condition of exile in many of his writings as a focal point in
his ideological contention. He himself experienced homelessness and exile as a
Palestinian. The sensation of immigrants and exiled people emerging from their
reaction towards the new environment is totally different from what they carry from
their previous background; as Said suggests, “For an exile, habits of life, expression,
or activity in the new environment inevitably occur against the memory of these
things in another environment. Thus both the new and the old environments are

29
vivid, actual, occurring together contrapuntally” (2012, p. 186). It is assumed that the
idea of cultural and social identity, to Said, is a “generalized situation of being
homeless” (1979, p. 18) that means the displacement is linked directly to identity or
is bound to relocation, as in the condition of immigrants and exiled people.

I consider the significance of exile as an articulative position and structuring

experience for Said‘s critical contention because this dissertation analyses two novels
that basically focus on the identity crisis in immigrants and exile. His own critical
rhetoric and his criticism are evident from the language of exile he employs. From
my point of view, Said‘s concept of criticism can best be labeled ‘exilic criticism’
since it is so inflected by his experience of exile. This notion is obviously seen in the
assortment of polemical literary hypothetical essays which include The World, the
Text, and the Critic. In this study, I attempted to point out the instances that
demonstrate the positionality of exile according to Said. However, it is in a number
of Saidian notions typfied - worldliness, affiliation/filiation, and secular criticism –
that he enunciates most plainly the nature of exilic criticism.

“The Saidian view of exile, emphasizes exilic displacement and

emplacement over the constancy of movement in travel, and it is grounded in
the postcolonial experience of loss of home which gives to it both its
comparative critical distance and its ability to act in the world. Exiles, unlike
travelers, bear the mark of history in their personal narratives of loss and
thus desire the stability of belonging, butthat belonging must come as the
result of critical, affiliative efforts to participate in collectivities. The image
of exile theorized and embodied in Said‘s work presents us witha model of
an affirmative, though not unlimited, version of human agency based in the
traumatic experience of loss that is the beginning of exile.” (Morgan, 2009,
pp.17-18)
Said supported what he terms as a secular criticism over uncritical solidarity in the
successive essays that compost The World, The Text, and The Critic. According to
Said, recular criticism is different from religious criticism which is exemplified by
endless defferal beyond the level of human comprehension. These religious critics
attempt to appeal to the superhuman, the secret, the godly, the indistinct concept and
the mystery in their accounts of human life (Said, 2003, p.291).

Religious criticism does not examine or explain its worldly positioning. This is
demonstrated in political trends for example Arab nationalism and in the writings of

30
theorists such as Jacques Derrida who, with respect to Said, engage completely in
matters of pure textuality instead of the implications of literary texts and the worldly
situations.

On the other hand, the foundation of secular criticism is on a grounded critical

distantiation of the critic from her critical object. The secular critic is called upon to
oppose, even if not necessarily decline, the entire ideological entanglements ;
cultural, professional and political .

The implication of this is that the effect of secular criticism cannot be decided by a
specific literary perception, political system, or theoretical arrangement. Said applies
the perception of affiliation, an idea that he both supports and resists, to demonstrate
the manner in which the particular critical position could be accomplished.
Affiliation endeavors to recover the cultural influence of filiation, the actually natural
social relations, customs, family, or state, by building correlative collectivities.
Symbolizing this filiative aspiration is contemporary writing which is faced by what
is referred to as a crisis of filiation. Current authors have mapped the loss of
particular filial links and affiliative endevours to restore them owing to the fear of a
failure to create a subsequent generation.

Drawing from the above discussion about identity crisis, especially the contentions
of Fanon and Said, the aspects of the crisis, appear as the pro colonized imitating or
impersonating, as it is called mimicry, the colonizers style and way of life, feeling
estrangement or alienation, and resisting the colonizers attitude and ideology. In
addition, Said’s idea of identity construction by the exiled and immigrant will be
contrapuntal both the previous and the present cultures are taken together as they
opposing each other. This aspect appears in the way when the exile resists and
accepts the Western ways of life and in this is actual lose of identity; not their
original and not their colonizers’. And this study will discuss them through the
chosen postcolonial novels.

3.4 Conclusion

The question of identity is the most discussed and important issue in postcolonial
studies. Since the end of World War II, theorists and critics have given careful
consideration to the breakdown of postcolonial identities, theorizing these formations

31
and crises. Theorists have also displayed diverse views and arguments with respect to
identity arrangements associated with the procedure of decolonization and
colonialism aftermaths. The development of this identification, and of locating the
importance of identity and its crisis, shifts as indicated by the theorist, the period, and
the way of the edge that the identity broke down has been indicated.

In postcolonial times identity is given significance because of colonialism's long

stretch of conditions of depressed nations, in which new nations, liberated
communities, and individuals quested for their lost identity. The importance of
identity can not be found in dictionaries, because it related to the existence of the
"other." Fanon began his psychoanalytic discussion of the colonized individual’s
confusion and lost identity, uncovering the impact colonialism left on colonial
subjects and their response toward colonialism. Identity to Fanon depicted a way that
colonizer treated and embedded inferiority internally, by which the colonized
attempted to frame their identities by mimicking the colonizer to seem equivalent.
Said surely understood this, for his Orientalism takes after Fanon's concept of the
impact of colonial powers on dividing and conquering, so as to shape colonial
identities of the world into two binaries, West and East: Western colonial powers
purposely conveyed their belief systems about knowledge and prevalence. For Said
the forced identity of this power on Eastern subjects is neither genuine nor bending;
hence, he sees true identity as ideally shaped under resistance to the colonial
framework, to dismiss the enforced image and backtrack to the traditional reality of
Eastern character. At that point Said moves from the double relation between
colonizer and colonized and seeking in-between spaces to imagine the real nature of
colonial identity.

Fanon and Said have generated a more suitable theory for dealing with the cutting-
edge colonial character. Their most evident contribution to postcolonial theory
comprises of their thoughts on mimicry, cultural diversity, and homeless identities.
To Said there is no pure culture, yet there are diverse and real identities situated in a
middle space; the genuine crisis then exists in the method for creating representatives
and in its influence on identity formation. Said obsessed with the idea of the in-
betweenness of postcolonial identity as Ashcoft et al( 1999) argues “the in between
space that Said calls interstitial space locates his understanding of cultural diversity
that empowers the marginalised and exiled to compromise a position between past

32
and present and ironically accepts and denies the other.”(p.6)Consequently, the
limitations between West and East, along with identities characterized by
estrangement and its ambivalence nature; it is neither fixed nor flexible, lying
somewhere in between.

To sum up, the idea of postcolonial identity presented by Fanon is about the
influence of colonial system on the colonized, which made them feel inferior,
whereas Said’s similar idea of Fanon identities gives accord to the idea of a superior
Western culture. Both Fanon and Said perceive identity as influenced by the colonial
impact and the crisis occurs due to the feeling of inferiority implanted in their
awareness by Western systems. Consequently, impersonating Western or colonizer
behavior and style becomes one of the dilemmas of recognizing one’s sense of
identity. The sense of inferiority has left a deep influence in immigrants and exiles,
troubling them, causing them to feel homeless and the estrangement and ambivalence
toward developing a true identification.

33
34
4. IMMIGRANT IDENTITY CRISIS IN SAM SELVON'S THE LONELY

LONDONERS

One grim winter evening, when it had a kind of unrealness about London,
with a fog sleeping restlessly over the city and the lights showing in the blur
as if is not London at all but some strange place on another planet, Moses
Aloetta hop on a number 46 bus at the corner of Chepstow Road and
Westbourne Grove to go to Waterloo to meet a fellar who was coming from
Trinidad on the boat-train. (Selvon 1956, p. 1)

4.1 Introduction

This chapter examines Samuel Selvon’s novel, The Lonely Londoners, and analyzes
the plight of the Caribbean immigrant, who traveled to England hoping that such
fairytales as had been fed to them by the colonizers were realistic in England. The
chapter considers the predicament of immigrants in their colonizer's homeland, and
their loss of the hope they had when they left their native islands. The theme of
impersonation is explored as discussed by Frantz Fanon and Edward Said in their
postcolonial theories. Considering their views some detail explains the particular
theory advanced and, subsequently, how it is used in the novel, for example, how
mimicry and cultural difference have influenced exiles and immigrants. The crisis of
identity experienced by the immigrants is examined through Fanon’s argument of
dark-skinned immigrants wearing white masks to imitate and adopt the colonizer’s
behavior. In addition, Said’s contention of the identity of exiled people and
immigrants and their feeling of estrangement is considered, then these arguments are
followed as portrayed in The Lonely Londoners, where Selvon typically applied these
concepts to express postcolonial discourse in his work.

4.2 Background

Caribbean postcolonial novels concern the suffering immigrants have endured in

Britain. The work in Caribbean literature has similarity regarded disillusionment with

35
England, mostly about London and what London has to offer to the black
immigrants. The writers of Caribbean novels have focused on the inhumane acts
blacks suffered from in England, which have also prompted their desire to realize
self-identity.

The writing culture introduced in the colonized Caribbean had a great influence on
the change of governance brought about during that time. The period of the Empire
in the British West Indies produced novelists with writing skills that likened them to
British writers. They adopted the English language by listening and reading as they
were educated in the language.

According to what the immigrants believed, to be British meant that you should be a
white person. Some West Indian immigrants had, however, stayed in Britain where
they helped to build multicultural Britain. Selvon himself was an immigrant of the
mass movement from the West Indies in the Fifties. His use of English to write
novels brought an important advancement in Britain's cultural value, which increased
immigrant value and importance in challenging their difficulties in daily life.

Selvon engaged the dominant literary culture as a member of immigrant groups

fighting for their rights. He spent most of his career writing about the suffering of
immigrant blacks in London. In The Lonely Londoners, he expresses his
disappointment of the black immigrant experience in London and in neighboring
towns. His examination of black immigrant identity crisis forms a crucial theme in
his novel.

The identity crisis also offered hope to West Indians immigrants in adapting to new
circumstances. Selvon demonstrates the optimistic that change would occur, along
with social reformation, which would make possible the London he at times
describes. The number of blacks living in England continued to increase year by year
after World War I ended, making London into one of the most cosmopolitan urban
centers in the world. The British government nevertheless curbed the flow of black
immigrants in London by enacting a regulation to reduce the number by half. It
adopted this strict measure to prevent a repetition of what had happened in the late
19th century, when white immigrants from parts of Europe and Russia stormed
London. Thus, London regulated the increasing black immigrant population by
confining them to unskilled jobs, for example. Or by making housing inaccessible to

36
black immigrants, forcing them to stay in temporary housing. These measures were
employed to push black immigrants into the street and to discourage others from
immigrating to England. In addition, the police were instructed to make the life of
the blacks uncomfortable by chasing them down, making their situation worse.

Selvon’s commencement of the novel is through the interplay between the reality and
illusion of London. Like the narrator, to survive in Britain, Selvon had had to adjust
his life from the old traditional practices of the Caribbean people, thus transforming
his sense of self. This re-appropriation is reflected in the narrator’s imitation of the
ways of the colonizers so as to fit the ways of the motherland colonizers. However,
the immigrants’ expectations were totally unsuitable in London and despite their
mimicking of the colonizer, they were not welcomed. This led to a transformation
that changed the hopes of both these immigrants and their colonizer.

The struggle by the immigrant from the Caribbean concerns only a part of the
literature. Identity crisis was not limited to an immigrant from the Caribbean; it also
formed a great challenge for those in other parts of the world, such as Asia and
Africa. Most if not all of postcolonial literary authors at one time in their lives had
been forced to leave their countries and come to Britain. Many authors migrated
from their birthplace to London and other metropolitan centers. By the 1950s, Britain
was home to most of the immigrants from the Anglophone world; to some
individuals the migration was an attempt to colonize their former colonial master.

4.3 The Lonely Londoners Critical Analysis

The Lonely Londoners depicts the dilemma of black Caribbean immigrants who
came to London to work in order to improve their lives. They have imagined London
to be better than their home; however, on arrival, they face the reality of London.
Mgbeadichie and Asika state that the issues immigrants faced in The Lonely
Londoners include, “The dislocation of the black immigrants in London reveals the
need of resistance” (Mgbeadichie &Asika 2011, p. 46).

When people migrate or leave their homes for any reason, they face the reality of
being perceived as the "other." Selvon depicts this throughout The Lonely Londoners,
through characters who are confronted with problems because of their color; they
have difficulty finding employment or a room for housing, and receive low wages.

37
Immigrants face considerable discrimination because they are different and perceived
as the other. In the eyes of white Londoners, they are black, unskilled workers with
no education; they behave backwardly and are not equal to the indigenous people.
Because black immigrants are viewed as the other they are not accepted as part of the
community, and this causes them to feel unwelcome. Selvon’s novel shows how,
during the postcolonial period, constructing their identity involves a crisis; he shows
this through individual characters, such as Moses and Galahad. In the social and
individual life of immigrants within a center of colonialism, London, is depicted not
only as difficult but as illustrating the impossibility of constructing a hybrid identity
in the context of facing racism and marginalization by white British society.

On their arrival in London or other metropolitan centers, immigrants were amazed by

these surroundings. At times, they found to be incredulous the very news that they
would be going to London. For instance, in The Lonely Londoners, Galahad is
mesmerized by the news that he will be visiting London; he states that he feels like a
king in London (Selvon 1956, pp. 84-85). Galahad reveals his condition of identity
crisis when he remarks that he is torn between the white mask and his dark skin.
From this state there is some hope for West Indians becoming truly modern and
having a say in their destiny. Galahad goes to the extent to blame his color for all the
troubles he goes through. At the point where he doesn't want to be black, he blames it
on the discrimination that he endures.

Great Britain was a popular place for West Indians; one did not require a visit to
Britain to know this. Their information about England was acquired mostly through
the news and education system. Selvon was knowledgeable about British language,
history, sports, and religion, even before he had relocated to England. After his
arrival in London, Selvon found out that most of this information did not meet his
expectations. As an immigrant, he encountered a different England and referred to it
as “the actuality.” The Britain immigrants encountered was different from what they
had learned through their education system, but also different from what they had
read in storybooks. England was a more complex place than its shops and streets.

The strength of The Lonely Londoners is in Selvon’s presentation of London from

the immigrant point of view, a poor black Indian who develops into the authoritative
anthropological detective. It is the duty of the narrator to explain to the reader the
peculiar habits of the native London resident. Young boys, both immigrants and

38
West Indians, have the privileged perspective of London; they have access to the
entire city, due to their mobility. According to Selvon, Londoners do not bother
themselves with what is happening even in their neighbors, or how they themselves
are doing (Selvon 1956, p. 73). This indicates how most people are busy in London
trying to meet their basic needs.

It is through Selvon’s perspective that one gains rich information about London
culturally and which enables him to explore how Londoners relate to each other with
minimal human contact, as he encountered Britain. Selvon also explores how rich
and poor relate to each other and how black immigrants interact with whites. He
writes that when things do not work out for the poor, the rich people show little
concern. He can identify the city's dispossessed, white and black immigrants,
generating pictures similar to those he remembers taken by renown photographers
Bill Brandt and Bert Hardy, who used black and white film.

According to Moses Aloetta, the novel’s protagonist, London operates as an

unappealing, separate entity, where technology lessens work that had been done
manually. The economic life in London is characterized by an ongoing search for
food and shelter. The black immigrants, along with white women natives, have few
or no rights. Both, especially the blacks, are treated as property. London offers
limited job opportunities for the black immigrants and white women. Thus, they are
forced to be submissive to white men.

In an attempt to make sense of his London life, Moses breaks down how he uses his
time. He discovers that the routine is always the same, be it summer or winter it is
always sleeping, eating, and working. Moses is too busy to find time to spend
sunbathing alone, which remains his wish (Selvon 1956, pp. 129-130). Winter
evening in London is characterized by silence in the neighborhood, stale porridge,
and inactive gas rings.

Selvon's black Caribbean immigrants had thought they came to a better place, to a
better life. But postcolonial identity, as Fanon and Said show us, comes from binary
opposition of superior and inferior that defines difference between diverse cultures.
So these immigrants suffer a crisis of existence when they, as a different hybrid
group, clash within a new postcolonial community, still on the border of digesting
the new social establishment in the absence of real representation. The crisis of

39
immigrant identity floats on the surface because of this clash, and the new struggle to
establish an identity ensues within a postcolonial space, feelings of homelessness and
ambivalence, a typical result of people outside their homeland. They try to mingle
within a new social foundation, feeling neither detached from their native culture nor
yet attached to the new one. This dynamic explains the immigrants’s feelings of
ambivalence and homelessness; they are in a transition or a transformation stage, a
place in between “not there” and “not here.”

The following discussion demonstrates how the characters in The Lonely Londoners
embody the feelings of homelessness and ambivalence, both detached from their
adopted culture and not attached to their origins. Selvon presented the conditions of
the immigrant crisis of identity well. Each character is framed as a black immigrant
with a pro-colonized background; they all stand on the borders of a transformation
between the past and present, between leaving their history and entering a new era.
At the same time they also suffer from resisting the new traditions and from
remaining unwelcome and unaccepted as new members in the metropolitan London
society. The difficulty is of leaving their heritage of suffering, as pro-colonized
citizens, to accept the colonizer’s tradition of living while being perceived as
inferior. Among all these tensions and contradictions Selvon depicts the situation in
which the early postcolonial era through the behaviors of the characters. Each
character in the novel is an example of a specific crisis occurring to immigrants,
those who suffer from the dilemma of struggling to prove their character, in the
absence of representation in a new postcolonial community.

Selvon presents an identity crisis that employs various approaches to surviving as

immigrants and establishing a risky hold on London life. A refrain that reappears
throughout the novel turns on the perseverance of the immigrants’ old identities,
brought with them to London. The identity of Cap, or the captain, is characterized by
his use of fashion styles, lack of cooperation, and remaining untransformed. Cap uses
the white Londoners’ fashion to blend in when he does not want to be noticed. The
character Harris has opposing attributes to those of Cap. Harris is an early model of
reflecting and imitating the colonizers; he is obsessed with earning self-respect by
adopting English traditions to the maximum. Galahad is drawn to partying, engaging
in romance, and, more specifically, attracted to Piccadilly’s red light district. These
men demonstrate the various roles of immigrant men.

40
From Said’s viewpoint to construct an identity in heterogeneous cultures is to reflect
oneself in an alien “other” (Krueger 2009, p. 30); as previously discussed (see
Chapter 2), Fanon’s conception demonstrates how blacks imitate or adopt whites
behaviour in order not to appear inferior. In The Lonely Londoners,characters behave
in ways the English do, adopting their manners and reflecting these in their daily
activities. This kind of imitation is undoubtedly exotic for them, expressing a deep
sense of inferiority; for example, the character Bart, who has a lighter skin color,
pretends to be a Latin American, but feels degradation in his origins: When he first
hit Brit’n, like a lot of other brown-skin fellars who frighten for the lash, he go
around telling everybody that he is a Latin-American (Selvon 1956, p. 61).

This kind of hiding of one’s reality behind the veil of a lighter skin bears several
connotations descending from the legacy of colonialism. For example, the
generalised feeling of inferiority inside Selvon’s (1956) subjects, or the revealing of
the degree of the crisis in identity, has created a sense of Bart’s fear. He is afraid to
meet his fellow immigrants of the same origin, as if they are mirrors reflecting his
terrifying reality as an inferior:

Many nights he think about how many West Indians coming, and it give him
more fear than it give the Englishman, for Bart frighten if they make things
hard in Brit’n. If a fellar too black, Bart not companying him much, and he
don’t like to be found in the company of the boys, he always have an
embarrass air when he with them in public, he does look around as much as
to say: “I here with these boys, but I not one of them, look at the colour of
my skin.” (pp. 62-63)
Finally, though, even as he attempts to avoid looking like the “inferior” image of his
actuality, Bart fails and is recognised by the English people. In their eyes he remains
one of those subjects who cannot be included in the limited circle of the “superior”
social milieu of the colonizer: But a few door slam in Bart face, a few English people
give him the old diplomacy, and Bart boil down and come like one of the boys
(Selvon 1956, p. 63).

Harris is also affected by the notion of imitating Englishmen and behaves similarly to
them. Selvon describes Harris as “a fellar who like to play ladeda,” also he is fond of
“English customs and things,” he is “polite and say thank you,” and stands up in the
bus “to let woman sit down.” What is more attractive about Harris is that he dresses
as if he

41
 is some Englishman going to work in the city, bowler hat and umbrella, and
briefcase tuck under the arm, with fold up in the pocket so the name would
show, and he walking upright like if he alone who alive in the world. (Selvon
1956, p. 103)

But all his behavior to make himself look English is useless when he faces the reality
of being black: “The only thing, Harris face black” (Selvon 1956, p. 111). This focal
point illustrates Harris as the black skin who wears the white mask, Fanon’s
imagining of the dilemma of identity and the psychological effects on blacks who
hide themselves behind masks. Selvon’s Harris presents the idea of viewing oneself
as inferior in front of the Englishman, who mainly is the picture of the power,
implanting this inferiority into his subjects. Harris is also terrified of being shamed
by his friends:

. . . when the fete finish and the band playing God Save the Queen,
some of you have a habit of walking about as if the fete is still going
on, and you, Five, the last time you come to one of my dances you was
even jocking waist when everybody else standing at attention. Now it
have decent people here tonight, and if you don’t get on respectable it
will be a bad reflection not only on me but on all the boys. (Selvon
1956, p. 122)
Harris understands they are regarded as uncivilized by the English people: “and you
know how things already bad in Brit’n. the English people will say we are still
uncivilised and don’t know how to behave properly” (Selvon 1956, p. 122).

Not only do Bart and Harris impersonate the idea of inferiority; other characters
share the same conception of hiding their real nature, like Tanty who, on arrival to
England, says “we have to show that we have good manners” (Selvon 1956, p. 31),
confident that their manners are not good. This illustrates what Fanon and Said
discuss: that colonial powers, through a deeply rooted system, have generalized the
notion of degradation in colonized mind. In The Lonely Londoners, each
manifestation of self-identity is presented in a manner that indicates limitation
regarding the character’s use and exploitation.

Although the use of this theory developed by Fanon and Said is not exhaustive in the
novel, there are areas that indicate its usage in different ways. For instance, while
Galahad is enjoying the luxury and appreciating his experience of walking through
London, a white child walking along with his mother shouts, “. . . that Black man!”

42
This is close to the tone evident in Fanon's (1967) account, a portrayal of whites
despising blacks (Selvon, 1956, p. 87).

Racism in The Lonely Londoners demonstrates another image of identity crisis

experienced by its characters. The arguments of Fanon and Said regarding the binary
relation between colonizer and colonized reveals itself more obviously here.
Inferiority is linked to blacks and other colonized people. In the novel there is no
space in between and no compromise between black and white: Galahad uselessly
tries to understand the condescending treatment they have received, questioning even
their existence: “Lord, what it is we people do in this world that we have to suffer
so?” (Selvon 1956, p. 76). Trying to question the Lord is an existencialist issue and
Fanon wants us to imagine the deep psychological effect colonialism and
imperialism have left on the colonized people. One can easily discover the simplicity
and anguish of Galahad’s demand:

What it is we want that the white people and them

find it so hard to give? A little work, a little food, a little place
to sleep. We not asking for the sun, or the moon. We only
want to get by, we don’t even want to get on. (Selvon 1956, p. 88)
Galahad asks for his basic rights, but soon discovers his color has caused his
suffering. And instead of accusing the systemic power that put the idea of inferiority
in the minds of people, the reason for his dilemma and depression, he blames his skin
color:

Galahad watch the colour of this hand, an talk to it, saying,

“Colour, is you that causing all this, you know. Why the hell
you can’t be blue, or red, or green, if you can’t be white? You
know is you that cause a lot of misery in the world. Is not me,
you know, is you! Look at you, you so black and innocent, and
this time so you causing misery all over the world.” (Selvon 1956, p. 88)
This moment of depicting blacks as “other” is repeatedly shown, coalescing in a
reified phenomenon that adopts its unmistakable presence, yet which in any case
frames these characters and shapes their relations with other people. In this
remarkable scene Galahad converses with the color black, as though it was a man,
expressing that he, subjectively, is not the cause of degradation in the context, but
rather, it is the fault of the color black, a thing. Galahad feels these misfortunes,
caused by the color, and his frustration of being isolated can be felt in his question:
“. . . why the hell you can’t be blue, or red or green, if you can’t be white?” (Selvon
1956, p. 88)

43
“Colour, you are the cause of all this, you know” (Selvon 1956, p.77). Black
character within The Lonely Londoners,as observed through ideas by Fanon,
frequently shows the blacks as “primitive” or animalistic in leading dialogues, and is
probably most successfully demonstrated among Selvon’s works in The Lonely
Londoners. It becomes clear as the novel advances, that West Indian immigrants are
pigeonholed as the “other,” and that different models (regarding the body, work
ethic, sexuality, and so on) result in their isolation in terms of workplace and living
spaces.

To confound their predicament at the same moment they also attract the notice of
several (white) females. Masculinity in the novel is indicated by the considerable
time men spend looking for sex. Women are viewed as sex objects as indicated by
the author’s phrase “hustling for pussy” instead of another term, such as “courtship.”
The stereotyped ideas of the black body’s professed inflamed sexual organs
symbolize a shortage of control or desire, leading to the view of black bodies as
created “primitively,” causing its “animalistic” behavior, thus marginalized as half-
human.

Accordingly, those recognized as black, in personality or body, during 1950’s

London, who battled for a sense of belonging and approval of the white community,
were simply shut up or isolated. The color of their skin, or their dialect or accent,
were obvious racial indicators that bargain features of their character. These bring
about instant othering and the maintenance of stereotypes. Since the personalities fail
to notice any advancement in terms of their recognition within the world and social
status, they participate in drinking, sex, and extreme spending as coping mechanisms.

This narrative can be read in numerous settings and construed by several means. The
concepts permit a vital comprehension of black maleness and the motives of
outwardly conventional tropes are employed. Depending on Fanon’s concept of
“ontology,” regarding one’s personality, insights of race are formed and altered, in a
manner they turn into a focus on character crisis. The concepts posed by Fanon are
helpful in interpreting and demonstrating black characters within The Lonely
Londoners,reading these conventional representations as a reclaiming of personality
and stereotypes, a rebellion of sorts.

44
Moses and his “boys” are depicted in a settled, anticipated manner. They drink
frequently and discover their sexuality through white women (Selvon 1956, p. 79).
İnstead of further enabling these stereotypes, they demonstrate how outrageous such
concepts regarding black characters are to begin with. The narrative itself makes this
well apparent as a goal. For instance, Moses observes,

. . . you cannot wear any English intonation for [white women] civil and
civilise they do not need that kind of thing . . . They need you to match the
movies and narratives they hear concerning black people existing primodial
within the jungles. (Selvon 1956, p. 100)
By employing these white-promulgated stereotypes of the black male offering “big
thrills” (p. 101), Moses surpasses them by forming true, multi-dimensional
personalities in which we, as interpreters, feel capable of involving ourselves and
feeling compassion towards.

Even though the boys are cheats, liars, and drunks, we comprehend that these
personalities are living in difficult moments, in which their community attempts to
isolate and repress them. Lisa M. Kabesh (2011) has noted that the novel

begins to trouble the conflation of freedom of movement with political

freedom at its very outset. The narrative opens with a trip to Waterloo
Station, which is also the rail entry point for new immigrants to London. The
new arrivals on the platform of Waterloo Station are optimistic; however,
Moses remains pessimistic, for he is fully aware of the “colour bar” that
these new immigrants will face in the city (p. 29). . . It is through the search
for housing that these immigrants to London will recognize that many
“points of entry” into the country remain barred to them, the reality of which
the boys repeatedly face in their encounters with signs reading “Keep the
Water White.” (Kabesh, 2011, p. 5)
Generally, we applaud their strength and courage as they roam the London streets,
whose shop signs read “maintain the water white” (Selvon 1956, p. 29). This
narrative works to retrieve and represent black character within a new light, not by
demonstrating new concepts in total, but through employing old ones in an ironical,
mocking manner to reveal to those who perpetuate them how inaccurate they are.

Harris’s character demonstrates black identity in a fresh light; he is a respectable,

successful, and polite entrepreneur, depicted as different with the other boys in his
use of vernacular (behavior, life style, work morals, and so on). However, at the
conclusion of the narrative, Harris’ fate allows the boys to turn up and wreck his
party, since that is simply the sorts of “savages” they are (in line with the stereotypes,
that is). Although Selvon shows Harris in a non-stereotypical manner, the character’s

45
achievement and the party scene are employed as further illustration of stereotypes
created in opposition to the other boys.

Reading The Lonely Londoners as an ethnic story, one can comprehend why Selvon
presents black characters and bodies within this manner: to interpret, represent, and
re-signify race in a different way than usual. One of the major ways the boys use
their free time, and maybe employ it to cope with the separation and dependence in
1950’s London, is in “hunting” white females.

One reading of why these men emerge as hypermasculine, misogynist, and

hypersexual is in bell hook’s idea of “ethnic castration.” Perhaps this is not her own
term for it, but for lack of a better term and for convenience I use it here. hooks
argues that “black men approve a white supremacist sexist demonstration of
themselves as castrated, lacking phallic energy. Thus, they will want to excessively
declare a phallic, misogynistic maleness” (hooks, 2013, p. 216). Viewed as “other,”
because of “the colour issue” (Selvon 1956, p. 89), and thus, animalistic and
subhuman, hooks describes as a symbolic castration. For these men to retrieve their
personality and power, they need put on a “tough guy” act, becoming excessively
misogynist in their sexual manners. This is clear within the names they give to their
women, particularly white women: “a pricky piece of skin” (Selvon 1956, p. 76), “a
number” (p. 51), “a little thing” (p. 78), or certainly, just “chick” (p. 104) and
“pussy” (p. 79), for example.

Moreover, these men handle women like objects and goods, as confirmed through
their frequent tours in the prostitute districts and their feelings towards them,
including how they manage their domestic partners. For instance, “immediately
[Lewis] get home he begins to assault Agnes, although the poor lady does not
understand her mistake” (Selvon 1956, p. 54). This happens just after Moses jokingly
tells Lewis about the adulterous things wives carry out while the husbands are at
work, and validates his words by stating, “she does cause me too envious” (p. 56).
The renowned stream-of-consciousness bit within this text shows racism concerning
sexuality and matters of repression, because the white woman is

not concerned in transferring any information. The white woman is just

interested in one item and within the heat of feelings she refers to the
Jamaican as a black bastard even though she did not mean it as an offense
but as a recognition under the conditions. (p. 101)

46
The white woman rebuffs a Jamaican’s efforts in improving himself, since he
intended on asking queries concerning her flat, art, and furniture (Selvon 1956, p.
101). Rather, she is concerned in persuing sexual affairs with black men, supposedly
due to stereotypes she has got a wind of regarding black men and sexuality. She
defies to state that her racist comment was implied as a compliment within this
condition, since it might have been understood as abuse within any other setting.
Referring to the Jamaican as a “black bastard” in this scene implies that she notices
and recognizes his sexual skills, and the diverse stigmas linked to them. Moreover,
the idea that “a spade would not strike a spade while it has a lot of other skill on
parade” (p. 100) implies that these men are pursuing white females in particular.
Perhaps because these women might be capable of assisting them financially or
educating them about culture, as in the case above.

Instead of simply dismissing these male personalities as worried, misogynistic,

“classical” black personalities, reading their manners and approaches in view of
hooks’ idea of “ethnic castration” permits us to view their motivations and
experiences from a more diverse standpoint. These characters are really “separated
into small worlds” (Selvon 1956, p. 60), dependent on their race and class, and
therefore not permitted to experience social mobility.

Finally, readers might more easily comprehend black personality and sexuality
within The Lonely Londoners using Fanon’s idea of “ontology.” In his essay, “Fact
of Blackness,” Fanon talks about the procedure of external recognition experienced
by black people within a white community (Fanon, 1967, p. 257). For Fanon,
ontology is “the capacity to recognise ones’ self regarding the world near him” (p.
257). He argues that persons of colour cannot accomplish this recognition since they
are constantly bombarded by imageries facilitated by white community, those of
savagery founded in colonial-epoch perspectives of blacks as half human. White
persons are deemed the norm, and everyone else is othered, dependent on the white
colonial stare: “not just should the black man be black, he should be black
concerning the white man” (p. 257).

Fanon argues that every feature of one’s personality is traversed and works jointly to
form one’s knowledge, and that being black has connotations in stipulations of social
mobility, class, job posting, and so forth. For instance, “Moses understand which
section they will bang door in your face and what section they will take in shovels”

47
(Selvon 1956, pp. 3-4). Also, Moses realizes that “they are maintaining the entire soft
clerical jobs for their white people” as “they want to place you within the yard to
hoist heavy iron” (p. 35). This othering happens when white persons try to be
ethnically comprehensive, since they still call notice to the standing of black men as
“Negros,” and “heartless beasts” (p. 119).

White people’s anxiety is depicted in the child’s shouting “Mommy see, a black
man!” (p. 76). And even as black men are not as often viewed as lesser, they are yet
divided from themselves (and white people). Selvon describes Bart, the lighter-
skinned gang member, in that he

“does not like to be got in the group of the boys, he at all times has an
uncomfortable atmosphere while with them in public, [as if to state] “I am
here with these boys, but I do not want one of them to look at my skin
colour.” (p. 48)
Deeming himself “one of them” relies on stereotypes and presumptions, and one
would be handled poorly because of skin color. A man of color who is approved by
the white community (Harris) has to be cautious since he understands “the English
persons will declare we are yet uneducated and do not understand how to behave
correctly . . . you understand the way things are already difficult in Britain” (p. 116).
Fanon contends that the reality of blackness is that one cannot simply be a man while
black; at times he is deemed a “black man,” and must gain acceptance and approval
from the white man. I consider these men as not holding the logic of “ontology”; that
they are othered and at all times inferior to white people permits readers to
sympathize with them and comprehend the postcolonial period better.

When interpreting passages from diverse times, eras, and locations from your own, it
is vital to think about the setting in which incidents happen. On top of this, specific
theorists can permit one to view a narrative in a totally fresh light, one not
recognized previously. For instance, in interpreting The Lonely Londoners, I sense
that the ideas of “ethnic project,” “ethnic castration,” and “ontology” permit the
reader to comprehend the conditions of the time, and maybe to comprehend a
character’s manners in a diverse logic. İf one was not aware of words like “racial
creation” or “ethnic project,” one might interpret Selvon’s men as hyper-masculine
and other such stereotypes, a manner that enables and enhance these tropes regarding
black men. Instead, Selvon attempts to undermine such tropes in this narrative. An
interpreter could simply develop a compassion or dislike for a personality, but

48
reading a person’s manners through concepts like “racial castration” and the shortage
of “ontology,” it can be simpler to see why these characters would like to “maintain
the water coloured” (Selvon 1956, p. 87).

As in most postcolonial literature, The Lonely Londoners exhibits several

unsatisfactory relationships. Moses judges that in the social world of the immigrants,
every single sexual relationship is objectified by the racism associated with it. He
laments how difficult it is for black immigrants who wish for a normal social life of
family and friendships, unavailable to them due to the cold and unfriendly white
Londoners. Moses ends up viewing London as “a miserable, lonely city,” showing
how difficult it was for the black immigrant there (Selvon, 1956, p. 130). This again
shows the disjunction between the expectations of the Caribbean immigrants and
what they experienced in London and England in general.

Moses character exemplifies the postcolonial immigrant’s feelings of homelessness

and ambivalence. His use of the colloquial “water,” a derogatory name for describing
recently arrived black immigrants, indicates an identity crisis. While talking to
Galahad,Moses takes possession of a familiar sight in London, takes pride in it,
stating that he has been a London resident for two years. Despite this, and the fact
that he lives in a temporary accommodation, Moses avers his position as a citizen
who has the matters of the West Indians in London at heart, and who helps new
immigrants settle in London. From Moses’ act of helping West Indians settle in
Britain, we can deduce that he is still attached to the Indian tradition. His act can also
interpreted as an acceptance of Western culture. He helps others settle in London,
thus encouraging more West Indians to visit London. This help integrates fellow
immigrants with the native London residents. He says that the concentration of
Indians in a given area will draw negative attention from the London native
population.

At the start of the novel Moses is on his way to receive a new arrival from Caribbean
Trinidad; he is familiar with the situation. But what is noticed is a shadow of sadness,
and the atmosphere is grimy, which indicates or symbolizes the general background
and condition of immigrants in the capital of colonialism. Nevertheless, "One grim
winter evening, when it had a kind of unrealness about London” (Selvon 1956, p. 1),
here, the writer describes the city as illusory, as what the immigrants thought of their
life would be in London is merely in their minds, and a grimy kind of dream.

49
The facilities and hospitality that England provides Caribbean immigrants never go
beyond their need of working hands, while immigrants headed toward Britain expect
a better life and better living conditions. As simply expectant, their arrivals clash
with reality, become only the border between what they immigrated for and what the
capital city looks for. This idea at the very start of the novel forms a clear image of
immigrants before and at the moment of arrival, and depicts London as unclear and
grimy. Selvon tells the reality of this identification with grime in the postcolonial
world.

The novel depicts the destructive sensation in its character’s identity, one that results
from the difficulty of integrating to the English society in London. Selvon shows the
immigrant’s daydreams about London, whose chimera is that the streets are
furnished and that jobs are lucrative and easily accessible. The other illusion is that
the English natives are courteous, hospitable, and welcoming. The elusive hospitality
includes the illusion that white women are willingly ready to accept the black men
into socially normal relationships (Selvon, 1956, p. 102). The image of England is as
strong and influencial to the Caribbean immigrants who get to London with the hope
of fulfill their dreams. The West Indians are enchanted by their colonial education,
with neither such history nor romance on their island, and believe it will be plentiful
on the mainland. These dreams are ruined by the realism of their encounters when
they arrive in England, and in London specifically (Bowen-Chang & Winter 2008, p.
37).

In further investigating The Lonely Londoners, examining the applicability of

postcolonial theories on the immigrant's dilemmas and identity crisis, I apply Said’s
argument about home and exile. For Said,

“ exile is strangely compelling to think about but terrible to experience. It is

the unhealable rift forced between a human being and a native place,
between the self and its true home: its essential sadness can never be
surmounted. And while it is true that literature and history contain heroic,
romantic, glorious, even triumphant episodes in an exile’s life, these are no
more than efforts meant to overcome the crippling sorrow of estrangement.”
(Said 2002, p. 37)
The focal point of Said’s discussion is the state of being of immigrants within hybrid
communities. People who live outside their native homeland, and always
characterized by a sense of ambivalence, confront a range of difficulties in their new
and unfamiliar environment. In Said's view, the postcolonial condition relates to

50
estrangement. Consequently, identity in a hybrid postcolonial society is a feeling
experienced by pro-colonized people; this identity combines their original culture
with the colonizers’ imposed hegemony. Said’s view on modern culture and identity
construction evaluates the cultural diversity of immigrants inside the assumed
nation's homogenous limitation of time and space. As previously mentioned, Selvon's
novel, where black Caribbean immigrants believe they would be welcomed in their
new home as an adopted motherland, demonstrates their disappointment and anguish
when they are not welcomed and, in fact, face racial discrimination. The crises occur
when the different hybrid groups and societies clash in new postcolonial
communities, and must digest the new social establishment in the absence of real
representation. The following discussion sheds lights and discusses how the
characters in The Lonely Londoners embody the notion of estrangement and
ambivalence, detached and not attached.

In The Lonely Londoners Selvon articulates the conditions of immigrant identity

crisis through his characters as obvious examples of feeling and living in a state of
ambivalence and estrangement. Each character is a black immigrant with a pro-
colonized background; they stand on the borders of transformation, between past and
present, between leaving their legacy and entering a new era. At the same time, they
also suffer as they resist the traditions in their new society yet remain unaccepted as
new members of London society.

Selvon presents all these tensions and contradictions, the novel depicting the early
postcolonial era through the manners and behaviors of the characters. All the
immigrants experience tremendous disappointment and challenges; they feel
ambivalence, homelessness, and a sense of resistance toward their new home.

Moses embodies all black Caribbean immigrants; in his ambivalence, he portrays

himself as a Jamaican to a journalist at the station, although he is Trinidadian. He
feels estranged and homeless; he was among the earliest immigrants to arrive from
Trinidad and his presence early in the novel, at the station, is in order to receive a
Trinidadian. A sense of contradiction and ambivalence in the character's identity the
novel when Moses welcomes this Trinidadian, implying that he is still attached to his
previous history and connections as a Trinidadian. His connections and attachment is
more internal than physical; he still regards and appreciates his past and pays
attention to his friendships from his native country. But his presence at Waterloo

51
station also shows his detachment from his native country; it implies he is also
attached to London, at least in a physical sense.

But while Moses is attached physically to London, he is detached from London at a

deeper level. This accounts for his sense of estrangement and feeling not at home.
This is the border between past and present, between reality and dreams, and what
makes Moses unique in his embodiment of confusion with regards to his identity in a
postcolonial context. The postcolonial character is on the verge of leaving the past
and entering a new space; he is detaching from his origins and seeks to attach to a
completely different society. The estrangement feelings float to the surface. The
black West Indian immigrants waver in confusion; after a relatively long-term
residency in London, they still feel nostalgic and have a strong desire to return home.
They experience a difficult life filled with discrimination and cruel work conditions;
despite experiencing a strange lifestyle in the capital of colonialism, they cannot
leave it empty-handed.

The dilemma of immigrants in the novel is repeated throughout in anecdotes.

Although West Indians, generally, are accustomed to some aspects of their new life,
they remain not attached to the place. They cannot return home as they are in no
better financial position than when they left. Moses and his fellow immigrants are
disenchanted by the discrimination, severity, aggression, and anxiety of
homelessness they endure in London. They also understand that their home countries
have experienced changes since the time they left. They do not feel at home either in
their native country or in England. In the final pages of the novel, Selvon depicts
Moses as feeling a sense of nostalgia about home; he thinks about returning to
Trinidad after living in London for more than ten years and expresses the complex
feelings of immigrants torn between continuing their life in London and returning to
their native country:

Look how we sit down here happy, and things brown in general. I mean,
sometimes when we old talking so I does wonder about the boys, how all of
we come up to the old Brit’n to make a living, and how years go by and we
still here in this country. Things like that does bother me. (Selvon 1956, p.
124).
Still not attached to London, he feels lonely like his fellow immigrants; he fears
dying alone. His thoughts and feelings are foggy; he has no clear image of himself.
This deep disenchantment and disappointment precisely expresses the nature of the

52
immigrant’s crisis with regards to his identity; he fears dying alone, and forever
being on the outside of the new society, even after a decade of living there. This is a
good example of the estrangement Said discusses in Reflections on Exile (2002).
Moses expresses this feeling explicitly, as immigrants like him are trapped between
returning to their native country and continuing their miserable lives in England: "I
talk serious, man. And I can't go I just lay there on the bed thinking about my life,
how after all these years I ain't get no place at all, I still the same way, neither
forward nor back" (Selvon 1956, p. 124).

Moses finds it difficult to make a decision as he has nothing in his homeland and has
nothing in his new home; he is placeless, not identified at all by location. This
perfectly expresses his homeless feeling; he feels uprooted from everywhere, frozen
at the border between proving himself and identifying himself as a postcolonial
person with a colonized background. Home is the symbolic motherland, the place
where one feels safe and where identity is most clear. Having no place puts identity
in crisis. In this sense Moses is the symbolic character Selvon continuously writes
about in his novels. Selvon wants to convey the confusion that immigrants feel on
account of lacking an identity in their new societies during the postcolonial period.
Selvon was aware of the difficulty of expressing how immigrants own identity within
such a community that claimed "We are British subjects and he is only a foreigner"
(Selvon 1956, p. 21)

4.4 Exile, Language, and Identity Crisis

According to Edward Said, exiles might not occupy the ideal political or social
environment. However, they might have a privileged perspective that could be
insightful when attempting to integrate other seemingly unwelcome members into
asociety. Their perspective offers an opportunity to re-examine norms that may
otherwise be promoting divisions between dominant cultures and other members of
society. In “Reflections on Exile,” Said writes, “Most people are principally aware of
one culture, one setting, one home: exiles are aware of at least two, and this plurality
of vision gives rise to an awareness of simultaneous dimensions, an awareness that-
to borrow from music- contrapuntal”. (1984, p. 148)

It is worth exploring the issues that emerge when developing a cultural identity post-
colonial rule, and the ways in which the knowledge introduced by colonial rulers has

53
been justified. Such knowledge somewhat serves the colonizer’s agenda. Images of
the colonized in colonizers’ literature have also been employed in justifying
colonialism. The colonized end up writing their history and legends in the colonizer’s
language. It also becomes the language with which the colonized attempt to subvert
their alleged masters, while remapping and crafting their own identity. Authentic
decolonization efforts can have an intellectual impact. Such activities further
influence post-colonial literature.

Post-colonial literature is emerging as a fertile area of study in the contemporary

world dispensation, particularly where the East and the West are trying to bridge
apparently insoluble gaps. Previously gagged voices in hitherto colonized territories
have found new voices in English literature, further demonstrating how far such
communities have drifted from their traditions. The English language has offered a
platform for voicing the plights of the colonial era. Severe feelings of inadequacy
and disenchantment, with adverse implications for identity, are the major subjects
being addressed in postcolonial novel. In The Lonely Londoners, Sam Selvon boldly
identifies the discomforts and inadequacies that arise from belonging to and
participating in two cultures simultaneously.

Sam Selvon ,an immigrant intellect, is finding himself in an awkward position as a

novelist. He was fluctuating between several varied cultural norms and traditions
with unequal power relations between them. He had to confront the difficulties
associated with finding an appropriate way of expressing himself, taking into account
the variety of his background. He had to consider how to be accessible to a wider
audience, while resisting the trap of mimicking the prevailing culture. Language and
form, in addition to relevant themes, could facilitate such quests. The Lonely
Londoners emerges as a distinct body of work mainly because it addresses the
prevailing subject of exile and migration. Furthermore, it represents a reflection on
Sam Selvon’s point of view of the post-colonial experience, while addressing the
challenges of immigrants. It also examines the sentiments of an expatriate with the
hopes of ‘returning home’ following years in West.

The component of West Indian identity encompasses diverse racial elements. African
qualities mix with both European and Asian qualities and cultural traditions. Selvon
has East Indian and partly Scottish roots. However, he considers himself entirely
creolized Trinidadian, with no direct cultural associations to any of the more ancient

54
traditions of ancestors outside the West Indies. The multifaceted aspects at play in
cultural experiences become even more prominent when an individual becomes an
expatriate. Cultural legacies that converge in Selvon’s work develop in a mixed
structure that is equivalent to the appearance and development of multicultural
societies in London from the 1950s, all the way to the prevailing transcultural
outline.

According to Selvon, as depicted in The Lonely Londoners, in the West Indies, there
is nothing to refer to as a West Indian community. Exile is a prerequisite for such a
condition. The creation of a West Indian community outside the West Indies, is
partly out of the ignorance of the western community and the shared experience of
the displacement of the immigrants who form the external society outside the
territory of the West Indies, which creates the consciousness of their identity. In
many occasions, Selvon expressed as Thieme argues “the desire to demarcate West
Indies in the topography and mentality of an unresponsive Western society” ( 1990,
p.72), to locate through literature “his part of the world onto the map” (Nazareth
1988, 81).

According to Lisa M. Kabesh (2011), The Lonely Londoners is a “novel about

society construction.” as well as it creates the community it portrays through the
novel, recording and drawing its narratives and movement (p.1). The attempt to
construct an authentic community faces numerous challenges in the course of the
novel. The literary activity explores varied aspects in the religious text as well as in
canonical literary works. These are presented in vernacular or urban dialect;
Caribbean, as well as colloquial English.

Although the form and language seem largely experimental, Selvon’s comments
imply that it is not a conscious attempt to revolt or subvert a colonizer’s traditional
forms and language. For Selvon, it was the discovery of something absolutely natural
to his narration. Selvon says that in The Lonely Londoners, he felt that the language
he employed was effective and expressed exactly what he wished to put across
(Nazareth, 1988, p.78). The same can be said concerning the form, which some
critics regarded as a deconstruction of a Western novel’s traditional form. In an
interview, Selvon denies that he had any such intentions and he wrote it simply as it
had come to him (Dotti, 1990, 81).

55
The selected coding technique, as well as the style and form depict the hybrid
character of a West Indian exile. The varied resources available to him create a very
specific textual mix that combines scribal medium of a dominant Western culture
and the oral storytelling features and calypso that are characteristic of Trinidadian
society. It is in The Lonely Londoners that Selvon came up with a technique capable
of integrating authenticity and narrative coherence (Birat 2009). Birat (2009) further
highlights Michael Fabre’s analysis of the novel, where he emphasizes the
importance of language as a narrative device facilitating the narrator to link
Caribbean content with European form and not to reflect Caribbean origin (p. 2).

In the course of reading The Lonely Londoners, we observe what appears to be

virtually imaginative power in Selvon’s quest for “appropriate” form and language.
The influence of folk narration and orality is highly perceptible in The Lonely
Londoners. More identifiable oral narrative elements appear first in short episodes
integrated in the wider frame of the novel, of the experiences of an individual in
exile, and an individual within a community. It attempts to depict the changes and
conflicts between generations of immigrants who settled for varied strategies in
dealing with the Western environment. It further addresses different strategies of
coping with sentiments of displacement, from the first generation’s efforts to
assimilate, their increasing disillusionment and, more often than not, eventual
acceptance of a lower position in society. Feelings of displacement reach a peak
when Moses’ thoughts of returning to his homeland are deemed impossible, leaving
him trapped in a dilemma between two countries that symbolize his ambivalence
towards both. The following passage from The Lonely Londoners is characteristic of
the sentiments of disunity and ambivalent self-positioning: “That is to say, he neither
here nor there, though he more here than there.”

It is evident in The Lonely Londoners that Selvon was struggling with the language
in his work, a problem that was quite typical in the 1950s. The quest for alternative
ethnicity as well as some form of committed writing plagued numerous writers from
newly independent nations, and those still struggling form political and cultural
emancipation (Ashcroft, 1989a, p. 41). It is critical to note that Selvon attempted
writing The Lonely Londoners in Standard English. However, the medium proved
rather ineffective as far as his subject was concerned. He admitted to the difficulties
such writing presented. He gradually switched to the use of creolized English in both

56
narrative voice and dialogue in the course of his writing. Selvon prides himself as
(Nasta, 1995) states “in being the first to employ such a technique to such an extent”
(p.74). The language and form adopted, however, is not simply a way of
distinguishing characters with different cultural or social backgrounds. Selvon was
able to create an original and realistic artificial language, effectively disrupting the
assumption widely held in the 1950s that realism and experimentalism were
ideologically opposed in literary form (Bentley 2005, pp.69-70). Selvon integrates
the entire continuum of linguistic material, from old-fashioned and even archaic
English –“One time in Camden Town Bart gets a small room, and he fall sick and he
nearly dead in that room. He get pale and had fever and he coughing like a bass
drum. Moses went to see him. Bart lay down there on this bed like he dead: when he
start to cough he scattering blanket and shaking up like an old engine” – (Selvon
1985, 64)

The above technique, however, reaches its peak towards the conclusion of the book,
where narration progressively transforms into an uninterrupted stream of
consciousness with hardly any punctuation or paragraphs. This considerably long
section of the text also contains a passage that offers a listener, rather than a reader,
series of anecdotes and ballads on what transpired for Moses and his colleagues.
Even the ballad in this text is anchored to a woman, like most are. The entire event is
described in a way that seems like it is presented in ‘one breath’.

“one summer night one splendid summer night with the sky brilliant with
stars like in the tropics he was liming in green Park when a English fellar
come up to him and say you are just the man I am looking for who me
Moses say yes the man say come with me Moses went wondering what the
test want and the test take him to a blonde who was standing up under a tree
and talk a little so Moses couldn’t hear but Blondie shake her head then he
take Moses to another one who was sitting on a bench and she say yes so the
test come back to Moses and want to pay Moses to go with the woman
Moses was so surprise that he say yes quickly and went with the thing and
the test hover in the background afterwards he ask Moses if he would come
again and Moses say yes.” (Selvon, 1985, pp. 106-7)
This kind of using the technique of streams of consciousness, is seen in The Lonely
Londoners. This much more subdued in the stylistic elements, particularly in the use
of fabricated dialects. In addition, the orals within the stream of consciousness
technique are modest. In their place, the multidimensional nature of the exile’s
experience are integrated into a highly specific interaction of varied registers

57
combined with subjects or situations that create tension or conflict, often with an
ironic resentful effect.

Comedy is a critical aspect of Trinidadian calypso, and generally the black West
Indian community. It takes as (Nasta 1988) argues on defensive role (p.11) for the
individual as well as the community to confront past suffering and those who
presently find themselves in the position. The Lonely Londoners’ ending some
moments in which comedy is employed to mask certain unpleasant realities. This is
evident not only in the immediate environment but also in the character’s personal
lives. The masks, therefore, effectively make life more tolerable;

“As if on the surface, things don’t look so bad, but when you go down a
little, you bounce up a kind of misery and pathos and a frightening—what?
He don’t know the right word, but he have the right feeling in his heart. As if
the boys laughing because they fraid to cry, they only laughing because to
think so much about everything would be a big calamity. “(Selvon 1985,
142)
In the Trinidadian and West Indian narrative elements, we can isolate sustained use
of an episodic structure of all three books, with the major building blocks beings
types of ballads or anecdotes associated with typical trickster figures and ‘buffoons’
of West Indian folk narratives. The persistent feeling of ‘the carnival-esque’ is
further propped by other calypso features, including rhythm and music, irony,
machismo, sexuality, and picong, which are quintessential to West Indian identity.
Similarly, he speaks of his final choice and form, describing calypsonian elements as
emerging naturally and the West Indian characters presenting them “most truthfully”
in the particular from he is employing (Thieme, 1990, p.72).

Many examples of the employment of such typical linguistic elements can be found
in The Lonely Londoners. It is a challenging technique that requires considerable
knowledge of varied English dialects and registers. The device is pervasive across
the novel. Selvon’s technique evolved into a more scribal nature with increase in
experience in the writing craft, when compared with what The Lonely Londoners
presented. Nevertheless, more recent work preserves its originality and edge, while
remaining perfectly comprehensible to Western readers. Selvon integrates all
dimensions of language accessible to him. For example, although the picong
representations often ‘act’ like mistakes, they resonate with numerous meanings and
connotations.

58
Selvon’s novels are defined by specific languages and characteristic styles, including
easy transition from archaic language or poetic passages to a more oral ballad tone,
Trinidadian expressions, ironic calypso humour that stands out in contrast to
idealistic and didactic passages, and unanticipated juxtaposition of several registers
in a paragraph or within a sentence. A combination of two or all of the above literary
techniques appropriately highlights the omnipresent iron of a displaced exile, with no
possession over any of those traditions, although his or her entire identity of
fashioned out of the same. Selvon’s uniqueness does not emanate only from his
capacity to present this challenging situation experienced by an exile. He is able to
transcend the depressing hopelessness that can arise from such a situation. He
introduces a new and evolved form of displacement that is more universal,
considering the feeling of displacement is not only ascribed to immigrants, but can
also be traced throughout global urbanized trans-cultural environments.

According to Kenneth Ramchand (1988) the language employed by Selvon is not the
language of the people of any single division of the society, but it holds the
receptivity of an entire society (p. 229). It’s power and authenticity arises not in
employing any actual language variation, but in fact in that specific “compromise of
reality’ and ‘fabrication’ that Selvon managed to create (Fabre, 1988, p.67). It
permitted him to liberate himself from the constraints of stereotypic connotations
associated with the use of Standard or Creolized English. This allowed his work to
present a transcultural dimension, offering a new direction for the British novel,
while mirroring cultural transformations in modern society. Selvon depicts how
literature can preserve the fundamentals of a particular community or communities,
while evolving to serve the needs of a changing world or environment.

According to Selvon, he wished to not only place Trinidad on the world map, but
also to enrich and reinvigorate English language and literature. He hoped that that his
work would usher in “world literature” as opposed to being referred to as Third
World literature or British literature (Nazareth 1988, 86). Furthermore, Selvon
believed that larger nations could understand more of what was taking place in
smaller nations through literature (Dotti 1990, 83). The Lonely Londoners remains a
critical piece of literature in the quest for improved understanding between cultures.

Language is one of the key tools with which post-colonial writers communicate their
cultural gap from the colonizing power’s literature. The manipulation of linguistic

59
forms is an important means through which Caribbean writers declare their sense of
place or displacement, and create an identity that is distinct from other pervasive
cultures, for example, Englishness. In literary texts, such alternatives are always
negotiated through experimentation and adjustment of Standard English. Language
has a critical function as a medium of power. It therefore demands that postcolonial
writers distinguish themselves by replacing the language at the center in a discourse
that acknowledges the colonized place. Selvon particularly employs numerous
language strategies that are identified by Ashcroft et al as being definitive of post-
colonial writing, including abrogation, appropriation, challenging Western concerns
regarding ‘authenticity,’ syntactic fusion, and the concept of a poly-dialectic
continuum.

The Lonely Londoners operates within a realist context. This is evident in the
language produced. The text adopts distinctive language forms of the characters it
seeks to describe. All this was taking place as “English people staring to make rab
about how too much West Indians coming the country: this was a time, when any
corner you turn, is ten to one you bound to bounce up a spade.” (Selvon 1956, p.24).
The application of West Indian slang words, for example, “rab” and handling of
regular English syntax to depict the words of black Caribbean’s in the working class
“bounce up a spade”,“people starting to make”- are employed in the novel to create
an genuine depiction of the sub cultural group in question. The novel’s adoption of
such language forms earns it a place within a specific formal and ideological system,
against which the text would have been accepted.

In addition to the characters speak in non-standard English, the third-person narration

also takes the form. According to Selvon, his decision to employ a form of Creolized
expression in his narrative tone in a critical aspect in The Lonely Londoner’s writing
as it is quoted by Nazareth(1988);

“when I started to work on my novel The Lonely Londoners I had this great
problem with it that I began to write it in Standard English and it would just
not move along…It occurred to me that perhaps I should try to do both the
narrative and the dialogue in this form I started to experiment with it and the
book just went very rapidly along…With this particular book I just felt that
the language that I used worked and expressed exactly what I wanted it to
express (p.421).
Here, Selvon explores the liberating effect of his choice to express the narrative
voice in the Creolized style adopted for the key characters. This represents a ‘release’

60
from Standard English as a technique integrated into the narrative, in addition to the
linguistic structure of the text. The elimination of distance between the omniscient
narrative voice and the characters it depicts, a situation akin to Catherine Belsey’s
rejection of “hierarchy of discourses” (pp. 70-72), is an empowering expression of
collective identity that does away with the position of authority that arises from a
narrator speaking in Standard English and the characters employing dialects.

The strategic oscillation from Standard English in Selvon’s work of fiction is what
Ashcroft et al. (1998) refer to as the dual process adopted by numerous post-colonial
novels, in the form of abrogation and appropriation (pp. 38-9). Abrogation is the
“denial of the privilege of English and a rejection of the metropolitan power over the
means of communication.” Conversely, appropriation is “the reconstitution of the
language of the centre, the process of capturing and remolding the language to new
usages, a separation from the site of colonial privilege” (p.38). While Ashcroft et al.
identify these as two distinct functions within post-colonial writing, it is evident that
the two processes function simultaneously in The Lonely Londoners. The
manipulation of syntax as well as the deviation from grammatical structures regarded
as Standard English demonstrate that both abrogation and appropriation are at work.

The mode of identifying each of these issues is dependent on the perspectives of the
reader, in an issue that interacts with dual addressivity. In the case of the white
‘mainstream’ British reader, the text can be easily defined as an abrogation of the
cultural center, rejecting the Standard English, and in turn the cultural assumptions
its promotes. In the case of an addressee belonging to a subcultural group of black
settlers in Britain in the 1950s, the strategy of appropriation functions more like an
empowering system, through the establishment of a special sub-cultural identity, in
addition to wrestling control from and subverting a colonial tongue. Appropriation is
dramatized in The Lonely Londoners through Big City, the character who renames
the city via his own comic nomenclature system (p. 95). Accordingly, Looker
comments that in The Lonely Londoners, Selvon’s narrative effectively establishes a
territory, learns the terrain, and colonizes the city (p. 64). This is a symbolic
representation of appropriation of colonial space via subversion of the language,
empowerment of the marginalized black subjects, and the recolonization of the
prevailing post-colonial environment.

61
In The Lonely Londoners, the narrator’s language and the characters’ language both
correspond to the system that recognizes centripetal forces in language use. The
exclamation in the novel “Is English We Speaking” by Galahad proclaims his
individual identity through the handling of English language. In addition, at the same
time, it highlights the historical legacy of colonial exploitation, and subsequent rights
to regain authority and control from an imposed language belonging to a colonial
power.

In The Lonely Londoners, the narrator’s language and the characters’ language both
correspond to Bakhtin’s system that recognizes centripetal forces in language use.
From a linguistic perspective, therefore, Selvon’s novel was created for a specific
postcolonial era in the 1950s. The return, a least geographically, to the center of the
colonizing power, is comparable to a form of colonialism in reverse. Post-colonial
accounts are recorded in English in that post-colonial environment, although they are
from the point of view of the colonized. The Lonely Londoners is a premier example
of the foremost moments in the decolonization process within literary discourse.
Similarly, Selvon’s early installment is analogous to what Franz Fanon alluded to
when discussing the liberating potential of literature in national or revolutionary
pursuits. According to Fanon (1967), literature could be employed as a tool for
mediating in the cultural power relationships between colonizers and the colonized
(p. 179). In the case of Selvon’s work, however, it is a revolutionary piece of
literature that highlights the subcultural experiences of Caribbean immigrants in
Britain in the 1950s.

Selvon’s writing has a transnational feel, focusing on a subcultural space spanning

two national identities, including British and Caribbean. Furthermore, the work
emerges before the crystallization of a black British identity. Nevertheless, Selvon’s
tinkering with language still requires further investigation of its representative
attributes. Authenticity, particularly, emerges in the work in the form of language
patterns and styles employed in The Lonely Londoners, which do not conform to an
actual language in actual practice in any recognized area of the Caribbean.
Conversely, Selvon’s mixes varied language forms and styles, including
appropriation of the English language favored in many parts of the Caribbean, in
what was been defined by Ashcroft et al. as the “Creole continuum” (pp 44-51). The
writer adopts a polydialectical continuum with a Creole base, The medium, which is

62
written language, although belonging to the category of standardized language,
exerts a special influence within the writer’s own language community, while
permitting participation across a wider international Standard English audience.

Selvon recognized the importance of producing work that could lay claim to
authenticity. Furthermore, his awareness of audience emerges through his deliberate
manipulation and navigation between Creolized language form and Standard
English. The authenticity in The Lonely Londoners, however, is based on an
invention or unique construction of a Creolized language, which, in the written form,
would find application across the entire Caribbean, owing to its ‘polydialectic
continuum.’ Selvon has referred to the creation of the ‘authentic’ language as a
balance between fabrication and verisimilitude. The reproduction of a dialect is vital
for an artist or an author, not only when they are in pursuit of verisimilitude, but also
truth:

“When I wroteThe Lonely Londoners, my intention was not primarily to be

realistic…I only tried to produce what I believed was thought of as a
Caribbean dialect. The modified version in which I write my dialect may be
a manner of extending the language. It may be called artificial and
fabricated” (Fabre, 1998, p. 67).
Paradoxically, the language Selvon ‘fabricates’ ends up depicting an ‘authentic’
Caribbean dialect. In addition, the final product is presented as in contrast, and as an
alternative to Standard English. The experimental nature of such a process of
‘extending the language’ is not lost on Selvon. It is also a process that takes into
account authenticity and representation. Since the author was partly writing for a
British audience and market, the representation of the ‘Caribbean’ in the novel isan
effort to reveal a distinct sub-cultural identity, which was under the influence of both
linguistic and sub-cultural processes.

According to Nasta’s (1995) suggestion, “while he reproduces in some measure the

speech patterns of the people, it is clearly an artificial form of the language adapted
for a literary usage and which is accessible to an international as well as a local
audience” (pp.8–9), Selvon’s novel problematizes the idea of authenticity in its
deployment of fabricated language. In addition, it highlights how specific cultural
value judgements are placed on authenticity of a specific way of writing. This was a
discourse that was particularly prominent in the 1950s. In the early periods, when
post-colonial writing was introduced, many writers ended up in a quest for

63
alternative authenticity which was seemingly hard to come by. This is largely
because the concept of authenticity was defined by a center to which they did not
pledge allegiance or belong to (Ashcroft et al. 1998, p.41). In addition, this center
was in conflict with their everyday experiences, considering they regarded
themselves as marginal, if not outsiders.

The eventual consequence of such an experience was that sentiments of centrality

and authenticity had to be questioned, challenged, and ultimately abrogated (p.41).
As an enduring example of post-colonial writing, The Lonely Londoners takes part in
the creation of an ‘alternative authenticity’ via its depiction of the special historical
and geographical experiences of a particular subcultural group. Nevertheless, the
novel also comes into conflict with the overbearing concept of authenticity in 1950s
literary discourse through its abrogation and appropriation activities of Western
literary styles. Consequently, authenticity becomes a culturally specific concept,
which Selvon fashions into a conflict and finally resolves. The issue is related to the
dual model of addressivity that the text creates. From the viewpoint of a white British
addressee, the novel fulfils the desire for self-expression in an authentic account of
the sub-cultural experiences of black Caribbean immigrants in Britain in the 1950s.
Conversely, from a Caribbean addressee’s viewpoint the issue of authenticity
becomes redundant, since the exaggerated characters and events depicted in the
novel are more geared towards the creation of a specific cultural identity while
empowering a subcultural group via the privileged cultural position of the novel. In
the latter function, verisimilitude takes on a secondary role, because of the need to
create an empowering voice for the marginalized subcultural group. This is an issue
that interacts with the authenticity of the Creolized language that Selvon employs.

Selvon’s language, James Proctor contends, does not simply modify a West Indian
vernacular but it is also structured around ‘Standard English’ in order to give it a
signifying potential to the ‘European reader’ (p.48). This implies that Selvon’s
manipulation of language has very specific political and ideological implications.
The alteration of language style in The Lonely Londoners is tantamount to a
resistance to dominance by Standard English in the novel, a Western genre. The
‘syntactic fusion’ of Standard English and a creolized continuum of language
disrupts the former, while challenges any ideological assumptions that define British
society (Ashcroft et al. p. 68-72). Disrupting the dominant forms of a language will

64
subsequently disrupt the ideologies that the speakers of the language subscribe to.
Selvon achieves this in the The Lonely Londoners. An accurate understanding of
Selvon’s treatment of linguistic and narrative form is critical, by considering the
social, cultural, as well as the literary climate under which the novel was first
released.

The deployment of Creolized language in The Lonely Londoners represents an

opposition to the nation’s verbal ideological life in the form of Standard English, its
linguistic center. The application of such expressions implies a negotiation process
targeting the associations and distances with the central language. It therefore acts as
a statement of opposition to the cultural and ideological systems associated with the
dominant culture. In a post-colonial environment, such fiddling with language is
tantamount to a political statement directly aimed at a dominant system of power
relationships and cultural molds, as well as the power relationships existing between
the colonized and the colonizer ( Ashcroft, p. 48). This is ostensibly what Fanon and
Said were alluding to when addressing the importance of resistance as well as
rejection of cultural dominance by colonizers. According to Said, cultural resistance
is a prerequisite for the recovery of geographical territory in decolonization efforts.

Said (1993) explores themes in cultural resistance, rejecting a native approach to the
construction of identity, which aims to re-establish and repatriate an untainted
authenticity that has been suppressed through colonial and imperial invasion. The
existence of overlapping territories and histories interwoven by colonial experiences
imply that cultural resistance is more complicated that it seems. Specifically, any
cultural resistance activities must endeavor to cut back the influence and infiltration
of an invading empire’s culture, while striving to recover a heritage (p. 210). Said
adds that recognition comes from remapping and occupying a space that the imperial
cultural system has reserved for subordination in the subconscious. Such as space
also has to be fought for in the territory that was once assumed to be inferior by the
allegedly superior power in search of re-inscription (p. 210).

Cultural resistance through re-inscription is out of the acknowledgement of the

impracticality of conceiving an authentic identity comparable to the pre-colonial
period. Consequently, an alternative route would be to re-map and then take over an
imperial cultural territory by substituting the consciousness of imperial powers with
that of the decolonizing natives. Such an analysis recognizes post-colonial texts as

65
deliberate systems that can be refashioned and redeployed in line with historical
experiences with a view to support anti-colonial resistance campaigns.

4.5. Conclusion

Thepostcolonial novel, The Lonely Londoners, clearly depicts the woes of the West
Caribbean immigrants settled in London. These immigrants, who moved during and
soon after the colonization of the islands by the English, easily account for their
predicament through references to the activities elucidated in the setting and action
of the novel. In the plot of the novel Selvon presents the results of decolonization, the
exploration and the display of the inhumane actions of native Londoners toward the
black immigrant.

Galahad’s detachment from his black skin color indicates the result of how the white
Londoners have disgraced and othered black Caribbean immigrants, who have come
to their city hoping for an extended hand of hospitality and acceptance. After
Galahad has struggled for some time to come to terms with his predicament, being
isolated and overlooked for being black, he finally expresses his discontent in a
mythical conversation with the color black. By lamenting on the color of the
immigrants’ skin, Selvon demonstrates the theme of mimicry as conceived by Fanon.
Galahad has felt irritated from the miseries his color has caused him and his fellow
immigrantsin England, a place they had high expectations for, and the hope of
developing their lives there (Kanneh 1993, p. 43). In his conversation with the color
black, Galahad portrays mimicry in the sense that by the denial of his self-identity,
he wishes he could be like his colonizers, or at least not black.

Galahad’s disassociation from the reality is, however, soon overridden by his newly
acquired character, one that assisted immigrants to further their intimate desires. As
Fanon and Said argue, the immigrant hybridizes into a stronger character who tries to
conquer the hierarchy imprinted on them by their colonizers. In his portrayal of the
sexual superiority of these young black men, Selvon illustrates Fanon and Said’s
theories.

The immigrants also hybridizes into a anthropological investigator, despite his

impoverishment and the loathing of Londoners. Throughout the novel, the narrator
explains the peculiar habits of a native Londoner and separates them from those of

66
immigrant Londoners. But the hybridity of the immigrant has given him a better
hand in navigating the city, allowing him to travel deeper and further in exploring it,
to parts whose access was customarily denied for native Londoners (Selvon 1956,
pp. 73).

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68
5. IDENTITY CRISIS IN THE MIMIC MEN BY V. S. NAIPAUL

This is the gift of minute observation which has come to me with the writing
of this book, one order, of which I form part, answering the other, which I
create. (Naipaul 1967, p. 293)

5.1. Introduction

The aim of this chapter is to analyze the crisis of identity in Vidiadhar Surajprasad
(V. S.) Naipaul’s The Mimic Men (1967). I examine Naipaul’s adaptation of Franz
Fanon’s argument on mimicry in the formation of identity, which is fundamental in
understanding the crisis of identity in the postcolonial era. I also examine the idea of
estrangement the novel depicts, both through Edward Said’s theoretic contention of
exile’s influence in creating identity crisis and in the view of Naipaul’s writing as an
attempt to resolve the dilemma of the protagonist Ralph Singh’s identity. The chapter
shows Ralph’s responses in endeavoring to form an individual identity while
struggling from the burdens of colonial heritage.

It is an irony or quiet paradox to apply, as this dissertation does, postcolonial theory

to the postcolonial novels, or those novels depicting ex-colonial subject resistance to
colonial traditions while living in the very heart of the colonial center, i.e., London;
nevertheless, such an application reveals the conflicting sides of the characters’
identity, which has grown in part from attempting to fit in: "The mimic is a
contradictory figure who simultaneously reinforces colonial authority and disturbs it"
(Sharpe 1995, p. 99).

Among the different novels reflecting on the identity crisis and alienation
experienced by colonial subjects from a dominating culture, The Mimic Men is surely
a masterpiece, an autobiographical memoir of Ralph Singh, who becomes a
politician, undergoing a sudden yet abrupt transition in life. His cultural shock living
in the imperialistic metropolis imitates dystopian and utopian complexes in his life.
V. S. Naipaul has described The Mimic Men as “a novel about the vacuum” (Mahood

69
1977, p. 187), presenting distorted themes of illusion and disillusion. In this novel
Naipaul has presented a view of self-criticism, self-examination, self-construction,
and self-understanding, along with spatial and historical consciousness (Naipaul
1967, p. 37), characterized profoundly in Ralph. The core themes presented within
the novel relate to the results of colonialism in India, among them the sense of
alienation, identity crisis, and, most importantly, the development of neo-colonialism
within ex-colonies. Ralph represents the persons going through an identification
crisis followed by the loss of their cultural values and traditions.

In the early 20th century, West India, a country that had limped under the pressure of
ignorance and poverty (Mishra 2013, p. 161) soon became a nexus of political and
religious movements. This had brought about a significant change of Indian identity,
dominated by various appeals that included color and race (Mishra 2013, pp. 161-
162). Fanon and Said have shared quite similar views to Naipaul in adopting the idea
of the subject’s mimicry of colonialists, resulting in a rather more chaotic outcome of
colonial dominance.

5.2. Identity Crisis inThe Mimic Men: Analysis

Before writing the novel, Naipaul himself had experienced alienation and different
identity changes in his lifetime, clearly depicted in his writings. Trinidad and the
Caribbean Islands, share a history characterized as the “bloodiest and most barbaric”
(Çulhaoğlu 2015, p. 88). The cultural settings surrounding Ralph can be viewed as
ideal places for French and British Empire to rule. The alienation of people
throughout South Asia transformed the regional natives into indentured laborers
during the late nineteenth century, under the disguise of sugar production businesses.
Trinidad had also gone through several phases of rootlessness, alienation, exile, and
oppression during this time, in which Naipaul also wrote his novels. The themes of
identity issues, ambivalence, and rootlessness, emerged during colonization.

In The Mimic Men, Ralph Singh shows different aspects that reflect the nature of a
“prototypical colonial character” (Ferdous 2015, p. 2), quite commonly confused
with the biased and pluralistic society he has inhaled. For Ralph, identity is a core
issue, depicted by his mimicry of European or Western views on different aspects of
life. His self-identification is in great conflict with how, generally, the Western world
views him. In following the footsteps of colonialists, he has abandoned his home,

70
family, and self-identity. He has married an Englishwoman and has been formally
educated in the West. His embodiment of Western culture has had a detrimental
impact on his life; it has alienated him from his cultural origins, thereby defying the
traditional values set forth by his ancestors. The alienation of his identity has resulted
in the scattering of his personal being, resulting in the vulnerability and corruption of
his inner self.

Similarly to Naipaul, Fanon and, later, Said have strong beliefs on colonial mimicry,
which originated in the disruptive “clear-cut authority of colonial dominance”
(Ferdous 2015, p. 2). The representation of this mimicry can be viewed in the
character of Ralph, and the creation of his identity and reality, by accepting colonial
language as part of his culture and traditions. Naipaul has imitated the English
language by contrasting it with the Hindi language. Words from Hindi language,
local reality, and cultural alteration vividly describe the alienation of Ralph’s identity
and, most importantly, show his resistance in uprooting his origins, thereby accepting
the dominance and authenticity of the English language.

Both Fanon and Said, in their arguments––and Naipaul in his novel––reflect a similar
understanding of the acceptance of an alien (colonial) culture. They have warned us
of the consequences of the colonized adopting and subsequently accepting the culture
of West. Naipaul has deemed this act as an that of “demoralizing their souls”
(Naipaul 1967, p. 2), yet he has urged paving new paths for different generations of
the complacent state, thus recreating their identity in the complex of the postcolonial
era. For this, Naipaul also prefers to communicate in the medium of English,
transmitting the colonized person’s feelings and thoughts. Moreover, literary English
has been viewed as introducing colonized identity and culture to the world (Ferdous
2015, pp. 2-3).

Hybridity, another kind challenge resulting from colonialism, implies the mixing of
discrete and separate modes of living (Ferdous 2015, p. 3). In multicultural and
complex societies, or idealized cultural settings, hybridization of societal aspects
occurs quite commonly on the grassroots level, based on mutual respect, equality,
and open-mindedness. Most postcolonial writers, including Fanon, Said, and
Naipaul, have showcased diversity as an anti-colonial tool of cultural identity and
“language shock,” which natives face during the transition phase. Ashcroft et al.
(2004, p. 119) have translated this effect as the breaking down of strict imperialistic

71
polarization. This is regarded as the mutual transcultural activities in relation to both
colonized and colonials in general.

Hybridity is also referred to as the assimilation of policies that defy the inequality
and imbalance of power relations, thereby masking cultural differences. However,
the ideal construct of mutual rather than an equal exchange of cultural diasporas is a
part of a colonized community (Ashcroft et al. 2004, p. 119). For Naipaul, Ralph is
merely a depiction of someone who has faced severe psychic trauma on the
realization that he will never attain the attributes of the colonials he admires. The
most significant feature of this trauma includes the impossibility of attaining the
whiteness of the colonial imperialist.

For Said, the analysis of colonial vs. colonized relationship, along with their mutual
and independent constructions of various subjectivities, is entirely based on the core
view of cultural diversity, described as, “No one today is purely one thing” (Said
1994, p. 336). However, Said and Naipaul consider all cultural systems and
statements as part of a space, which Homi Bhabha calls the “third space of
enunciation” (Bhabha 1994, p. 37). Moreover, cultural identity stems out of
ambivalence and contradictory space. Thus, Said shares the view that purity of
cultural hierarchy is not possible. We might view his Culture and Imperialism (1994)
as his strongly held views of the importance of useful capacities within the connected
space between cultures having both colonial as well as postcolonial provenance.

Considering the notion of estrangement (or alienation) Said (1993) noted the
willingness to descend into this area of conflict (“alien territory”), and that this may
open the pathway toward international culture conceptualization. Said’s contention
about liberation shows its revelation of the contrapuntal nature of identity in the
exilic area;

Liberation as an intellectual mission, born in the resistance and opposition to

the confinements and ravages of imperialism, has now shifted from the
settled, established, and domesticated dynamics of culture to its unhoused,
decentred, and exilic energies, energies whose incarnation today is the
migrant, and whose conciousness is that of the intellectual and artist in exile,
the political figure between domains, between forms, between homes, and
between languages. From this perspective then all things are indeed counter,
original, spare, strange. (p. 332-3)

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This might also be purely dependent not on the “exotism of multiculturalism” …
“but [also] on the inscription and articulation of culture's hybridity (Bhabha 1994, p.
33).

Proceeding with Said’s interpretation of cultural diversity, and that “Survival in fact
is about the connections between things,” Ashcroft et al. (2002, p. 119) have noticed
that this notion derives from the “in-between space” that encompasses its meaning
and, most importantly, it also includes the “cultural burden” that actually enhances
the perception of mixed cultures.

Naipaul shares some views with Said. In The Mimic Men, Naipaul has presented a
fictional character of Indian Brahmin origins, who has been subjected to alienation
from colonial culture during the early 1840s. Rather than accepting the cultural
notions and the mechanics of cultural diversity, Naipaul has showed intense dislike
for hybridity. He has also shown great discomfort in the intermingling of things
(Govrevitch 1994, p. 27). For Naipaul, origin, purity, and essences are everything.
Culhaoglu has described Naipaul’s view of hybridity as an obsession for purity.
(Culhaoglu 2015, p. 90) Naipaul is convinced that the cultural shock faced by
Trinidad and other former colonies is a violation that includes intermingling of
cultures that destroys the cultural fabric of that specific society. Naipaul is surely no
idealist and knows that the society can never attain a complete and utter degree of
cultural purity; however, he incorporates a desire for the attainment of the supreme
level of purity through his characters’ psyches, along with the awareness that the
characters can never attain their original identities and original values. For Naipaul,
the question of adjusting within a hybrid societal setting has never been a good idea,
and is quite commonly about criticizing the change as part of colonization in post-
colonized societies.

Said argues the notion of cultural diversity and identity as part of colonial presence,
always, on the one hand, ambivalent and fragmented between its outward appearance
as authoritative and original and, on the other hand, its enunciation as different and
repetitive. Bearing that in mind, Said has argued that colonial discourse does not
commonly demarcate between “self,” “a home culture,” and more importantly, “an
alien culture”; nevertheless, it is about “self,” ”us” and “other.” As he states,
“Imperialism consolidated the mixture of cultures and identities on a global scale.
But its worst and most paradoxical gift was to allow people to believe that they were

73
only, mainly, exclusively, white, or Black, or Western, or Oriental” (Said 1994, p.
336). The construct of defining a mother culture and its bastards is a rather strong
stance that props up the arguments presented by Naipaul in The Mimic Men. These
writers interpret similarly diversity and its association with cultural imbalance in
colonial societies.

As previously illustrated, Fanon’s perspective includes repetition as a strong force

that connects mimicry to slavery. In most postcolonial societies that have evolved out
of exploitation and slavery, hybridity usually transforms itself into mimicry of an
alien culture. As described in Ferdous (2015, p. 4), mimicry is the strategy for
attaining colonial knowledge and power.” In Said’s view, colonial mimicry is the
strong urge and desire for attaining recognizable and reformed identity; rather than
reflecting the other. Thus, Ralph’s assertion that he was fascinated quite less by the
act and the labor as compared to the order and calm, that the act might have implied
(Naipaul 1967, p. 157). It is evident that colonial discourse encourages colonized
subjects like Ralph to mimic the cultural habits, institutions, assumptions and values
of the colonizer by following his footsteps.

Ashcroft et al. (2004, p. 139) describe mimicry as the blurred copying of the traits
that threaten individual identity. Mixing cultures is a mere introduction of synthetic
positioning and cultural relativism that includes the resolution of two cultural
dialects. It also incorporates a form of “colonial authority, together with its content
that has somehow ‘terrorized’ authority with the deception of identification, along
with mockery as well as mimicry" (Bhabha 1994, p. 115).

These definitions also describe the complicated relationship between the colonized
and colonizer. But the ambivalence of these two diverse powers describes the
fluctuating relationship between mockery and mimicry. Mimicry is an ambivalent
condition because it requires different similar and dissimilar aspects. Furthermore, it
is also related to the perception of an incomplete as well as "partial transformation of
colonized to colonizer"; however, it also includes remaining different under the
microscope of Naipaul's creation of Ralph, educated in an alien culture and
subsequently married to blend in with colonial society.

Thus, The Mimic Men describes a shifting political dynamic of a colonized society.
More importantly, it is the story of Singh, a victim of ignorance, poverty, and who

74
lacks natural talent (Mishra 2013, p. 2). He has enjoyed great public eminence and
materialistic success in his life as compared to otherwise similar literary characters.
As part of his foreign education in London, he recognizes and later articulates the
various wrong-doings of his alien and sophisticated society. However, regardless of
his acute consciousness and superior nature, he is no less immune to the cultural
shock or alienation because of his confusing and, most importantly, fragmented past.
In reality, this has enhanced his alienation to the colonized environment rather than
helping him blend into the colonized society.

There was no one to link my present with my past, no one to note my

consistencies or inconsistencies. It was up to me to choose my character, and
I chose the character that was easiest and most attractive. I was the dandy,
the extravagant colonial, indifferent. (Naipaul 1967, p. 20)
Naipaul, as Ralph Singh, has also exhibited his West Indian experience, one that is
surely a vivid elaboration of the West and East Indian psyche, along with the
common reactions of these different and conflicting Creole, English, and Indian
cultures. Naipaul as Singh, the confessor, narrator, and visionary, comments on
different aspects of postcolonial societies that include politics, power, and racial and
social interactions between colonized and colonial beings. In Singh's experience
considering the life of London, he soon comes to a realization that a great deal of
relentlessness characterizes his life in his fantasy city. During his stay in his landlord
Mr. Shylock's house, he has encountered the same feelings of discomfort of other
immigrants experiencing psychic trauma. He describes the house as “a
conglomeration of private cells. In the city as nowhere else we are reminded that we
are individuals, units” (Naipaul 1967, p. 15).

The suffering of Lieni, the Maltese housekeeper with an illegitimate son, has also
inspired Singh to handle harsh environments while realizing that “We become what
we see of ourselves in the eyes of others” (Naipaul 1967, p. 20). Leini’s predicament
forces him to see that he has paid little or no attention to his physical looks, always
having reassured himself that he is “no monster” (p. 20). However, the development
of his mimicry, considering the colonial environment, has allowed him to move
further and to develop an attraction to his home on the island Isabella (Mishra 2015,
p. 3).

Said has mentioned this uneasiness in the characters who reflect colonial discourse,
quite commonly compelled by the ambivalence of environment and interactions

75
between the colonial and the colonized. The core reason behind this is that colonial
subjects cannot completely create what Ashcroft et al. (2004, p. 13) describe as the
“replica” of different traits and social aspects of an ideal colonizer. Said ( 1984) has
also argued that the detrimental aspect of mimicking a foreigner is the "double
vision," or “they are aware of at least two cultures” so that greatly revealing of "the
ambivalence of colonial discourse," but also hindering with its authority (p. 148.).
Moreover, this double vision also accounts for a provision for resistance that
unsettles the foundations of colonial centrality and subjectivity.

A follow-up of Said's arguments of postcolonialism, Naipaul has further explained

the problems faced as part of Ralph’s split identity in The Mimic Men. Regarding this
phenomenon, Naipaul has taken the position that there exists no alternative that can
stop a colonized person from becoming a mimic man, within the mere depiction of
centralized colonial power. This analysis clearly shows his perception of cultural
power in literature. Naipaul's approach to mimicry has a somewhat striking
resemblance to Said’s views, for example, “exile is never the state of being satisfied,
placid, or secure” (Said 1984, p. 148), thus "the performance of mimicry is masked
by ambivalence" (Ferdous 2015, p. 4). For the multilayered and ambivalent idea of
mimicry in The Mimic Men, depicting the complex nature of mimicry, Naipaul, as
Singh, says,

I paid Mr. Shylock three guineas a week for a tall, multi-mirrored, book
shape room with a coffin-like wardrobe . . . I thought Mr. Shylock looked
distinguished like a lawyer or business person or politicians. He had the
habit of strolling the bot of his ear inclining his head to listen. I thought the
gesture was attractive; I copy it. (Naipaul 1967, p. 7)
This passage elaboratly depicts the layers and complex nature of mimicry. It reflects
not only Singh copying the traits of his landlord but touches on the remorse of post-
war Europe regarding the Jews, the guilt embedded in the name Shylock. As a
narrator, Ralph has been encouraged to follow the footsteps of a person who has
exploited him. The mockery that has been presented as a quiescent version, surely; it
is not Shylock's mockery that forms a part of narrator's mimicry but the process of
colonization incorporated as part of cultural understanding. Considering the above
example, Ralph's character finely depicts an object of the colonial chain; however, it
is also an appropriate colonized subject (Ferdous 2015, p. 5).

76
The Mimic Men is not simply a novel; rather, it is an attempt to magnify the
conditions and surroundings of displaced expatriates within a colonized world. In his
novels, Naipaul has used to great degree a confessional tone as part of his
exploration, together with in-depth analysis of problems and woes faced by
expatriates. They are fine examples of authenticity and the genuine, emphasizing the
protagonist's sense of discontent, alienation and, most importantly, the search for
stable values and rooted identity. In The Mimic Men he has presented a profound
understanding of alienation within three different cultures. Singh has neither rejected
his previous values and traditions of Indian origin, nor has he completely adjusted to
the Caribbean culture. Finally, Naipaul's protagonist character has failed to become a
part of London and, more precisely, the colonial empire. His failure to do so has
turned him into a deracinated individual with an uprooted identity.

The vision of a three-time exile and his alienation has brought Singh into a newly
formed dimension, as reflected in The Mimic Men. Singh has acquired success,
money, and power following the easiest way. Like any other pragmatic politician, he
decries dishonesty, but hides his feelings, making him a mimic man and a character
who has identity issues. He presents the picture of a person with a pretentious nature
concealed behind the face of intellectual sophistry, having shallow or a lack of values
in his character. Nevertheless, Singh is also quite aware of his mimicry in life.
Surely, he has little or no affection and commitment to society or to his life. Defining
his mimic obsession he says, "We pretend to be real, to be learning, to be preparing
ourselves for life, we mimic men of the New world, one unknown corner of it, with
all its reminders of the corruption that came so quickly to the news” (Naipaul 1967,
p. 146). The fragility and uncertainty of his character clearly reflect the corruption of
the human soul.

It is worthwhile to note that the educational system also constitutes what is called a
“privileged instrument” (Martins 2011, p. 5), which allows colonized individuals to
follow the same cultural steps as the colonialist, playing their roles as if colonials.
This implies wearing masks that do not fit in any way, considering the characters’
daily lives in the empire. However, problems start arising whenever the colonized
individual starts believing the roles and characters he imitates. This mimicry and
imitation, following both Said and Naipaul, achieves the goal of the imperial
strategy. Said, in Reflections on Exile, recalleds that mimicry of colonial culture is

77
the desire to attain recognition and be reformed; however, the differences between
the colonized and the colonizer are quite similar but not the same in all contexts
(Said 1985, p. 86). This idea of not attaining the level of perfection, and the
impossibility of becoming the same, also highlights the alienated nature of the
colonized. On the other hand, it also pronounces the degree of the cultural
ambivalence of colonized people, considering their struggle for an authentic identity
they strive to attain for the rest of their lives. On one end, the complexity and
demarcation of mimicry and hybridity are quite difficult to define; on the other, some
cases define the extent to which mimicry has an impact on diversity.

Through examination of Naipaul's novel, it is well evident that the discourses of

slavery and subordination are quite fickle among colonized people in both colonial
and metropolitan settings. Apart from that, the significant impact of education
appears, along with other degrees of mimicry on some colonized subjects' mimicry
and their identity diasporas within the postcolonial period. This is reflected in
Naipaul's protagonist Singh. He has tried to mimic and make himself into a colonizer
since his childhood, which has hindered his ability to assess his behaviors and to
create an authentic identity until his early forties.

Most of the negative outcomes of Ralph's mimicry have stemmed from the
deconstructive representation he has formed on Isabella. He has spent most of his life
on little more than this island, on which he forms, or is formed with, an outlook for
achieving the colonialist dream. His family links with Coca-Cola business owners
give him some measure of social prestige. Otherwise, the island is a place with a
severe lack of opportunity, deprivation, and homelessness. Thus, his origins there
amount to a self-created prison from which he eagerly escapes by creating a sphere
outside it, thinking about his glorious ancestors. He has also done so by changing his
name, without telling his parents, and has tried to identify himself with wealthy
relatives. Moreover, he has also detested his father's actions and behavior toward his
maternal family, mainly because of its higher social status within colonial society.

Thus Ralph has imagines himself as a fictional character to aid him in coping with
the homelessness and origins he has felt quite ashamed of since the beginning of his
story. In conjunction with the negative images of island, he has faced quite the
opposite and yet aggrandized reality. For this reason he has not realized any ridicule
behind most of his attitudes. He has instead showed a level of imitation when on his

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first trip to London, he copies Mr. Shylock's habit, for example, of stroking his ear
lobe and then inclining forward to listen.

Singh has usually traveled by sea between London and his home, Isabella. During
that period, he has mimicked like "a leading politician." He has also been aware of
his behavior before facing the colonial attitudes in his life, which has created severe
implications on both the personal and political level, and has rendered him a
fragmented personality.

At the outset of the novel Singh has started to express his fragmented feelings using
pen and paper. He describes his experience in the boarding house as a way to bring
about some meaning in his life, moreover, for overcoming or finding a way of
redemption for the crisis he faced as a child. The deepest feelings of his life are his
loneliness and his sense of being adrift, also experienced by his father, but in a more
diverse perspective. With the narration of Ralph's life in flashback, he shows his
disorganized memories, depicting his father as a figure idealized by various
missionaries who have dwelled on Isabella. For instance, a missionary lady describes
his father as the person who "had the marks of grace" and someone who has never
"hesitated for the protection of missionaries" so that most of the people could
"receive the Gospel of grace" (Naipaul 1967, p. 94). Thus, Ralph has not much to
rely on in terms of grace; he must continue building an identity from something
besides his memories.

5.3. Cultural Confrontation and Identity Crisis

In The Mimic Men, the mixing of cultures, hybridity, and creolization has provided
no sense of stability in society; instead, these phenomena have created a more
“fragmented and inorganic” society during the postcolonial era. Naipaul, through the
narration of Ralph, shows a deep sense of powerlessness within the colonial and
hybridized society. Regarding such fragmentation, he writes, "The bigger truth come:
that in a society like ours, fragmented, inorganic, no link between man and
landscape, a society does not help together by common interests, there is no true
internal source of power" (Naipaul 1967, p. 206). Naipaul's creation of Isabella is as
an artificially formed society, quite commonly designed for the sake of colonial
development. It is a place where people from different cultures have been forced to
live together. And because there exists no certain mutual hybridization of different

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cultures, the living facilitates no comfort or alternative for the people dwelling there.
Ralph has acknowledged this situation, saying that the disorder and relentlessness,
the result of different exploration within three continents, has brought about the
unhealthy merging of peoples who can attain fulfillment only as part of the security
of their societies, along with the landscapes provided by their elders. He also adds,
"the empires of our time were short-lived, but they have altered the world forever;
their passing away is their least significant feature” (Naipaul 1967, p. 52). Here,
Naipaul has clearly depicted that a comfortable coexistence and hybridity within
societies having colonial settings is not possible.

As society's bastard, as Fanon and Said have described the colonized subject, Ralph
is nothing more than a survivor of the colonial era. As a part of the alienated culture,
he is unable to create an authentic and singular identity, has been caught mimicking
the colonizer, and attempted to incorporate roles and traits of the colonizers in his
life. Ralph understands that he has become a mimic man and is trapped in the
clutches of an imperialistic society. He has,

an awareness of myself not as an individual but as a performer, in that child's

game where reaction of the victim is deemed to have been done at the
command of his tormentor, and where even refusal is useless, for that too
can be deemed to have been commanded. (Naipaul 1967, p. 81)
Like most actions of players within a play, Ralph’s actions are also a part of
consciousness and thought originating purely from the colonialist regime. Initially,
Ralph has become a part of imperialistic society for achieving the “flowering” along
with an “extension of self”; he has found that everything has been put into words by
the colonial authority, and for what he has chosen for himself he merely has to play
the role of mimic. Nevertheless, his position as mimic is something he has not
desired but has no other options left. He has come to London to seek his true identity,
but found himself stuck in between colonial authority and complex identity issues
(Ferdous 2015, p. 10).

Ralph's memoirs document this peculiarity, thereby failing to recognize “What

emerges between mimesis and mimicry is a writing” (Bhabha, 1994, p.125) that is
usually a way for expression. Hence, his memoir has also the "marginality of history,
quite simply mocks its power to be a model," which is supposed to be imitable
(Bhabha 1985, p. 87). Naipaul's fixation on writing and its relationship to knowledge
clearly implies a pathway of the memoir frame of reference, used to prevent instead

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of allow Ralph to negotiate himself out of the role into which he has narrated
himself. The knowledge that has originated through writing, the self-knowledge and
experiences of Ralph, is more of an “existentialist epiphany of marginality through
choice” (Mustafa 1995, p. 106). Apart from that, the reclusiveness at the end of the
novel stems from Ralph’s embarrassment, depicting Naipaul’s two narrative forms:
repetition and mimicry. These forms lock the foundations of the colonial and
postcolonial characters he has created, along with their relative thematic settings
(Mustafa 1995, p. 106).

Ralph has also felt alienated in his political career, along with his marriage and
business success. All these aspects of his life are strongly dictated by the colonial
idealism embedded in his mind. Thus, Ralph cannot construct any good
interpretation of his political experience within a decolonized country. Most of his
slogans are based on different borrowed phrases, and he is quite commonly known as
the faceless politician who has been “made by distress and part of [distress]”
(Naipaul 1967, p. 240). The lack of power has also made all his efforts vain or of no
use. He has become quite aware of the political dynamics of colonial power and has
found that the government cannot run without the help of colonial officials (Naipaul
1967, p. 209). This crisis has created Naipaul’s “vacuum” in Ralph’s life and a sense
of alienation in failing to create his identity as a business person and politician.

Besides that, we should consider the aspect of Ralph’s sexual profligacy. Most Third
World immigrants who have migrated to the colonized society have encountered
more liberal views on sex compared to their home countries, which Ralph faces in
some frustration during his lifetime. This frustration has underscored his attraction to
not only colonial culture but also to different Western women. His attraction to
Sandra stems in part from her exuberant confidence and rapaciousness, but another
part stems from her Englishness, which might provide him with a strategic advantage
stepping into English culture.

For similar reasons in the results of his mimicry, Ralph has also become attracted to
Stella. His fascination with colonial culture has urged him to adopt the colonizer
lifestyle and culture, and prompted him to pursue relationships with Stella and
Sandra. But his ensuing frustration has led him down a road of endless
disappointment afterward, resulting in complete alienation from his family and from
society. Ralph’s memoirs, imagination, and consciousness have brought him under

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the effect of different psychological imbalances as well. His initial childhood
imaginations are the reflections of his education at school as well.

Each phase of Ralph’s life depicts different characters he plays in different

capacities. However, his role as a mimic has remained the same. In his retrospect, he
has asked his readers to “understand unsuitability's for the role I had created for
myself, as politician, as dandy, as celebrant" (Naipaul 1967, p. 124). Hence, the
certainty that he should prepare himself for inevitable failure.

Ralph has also asserted that he has found himself in a repetitive cycle of different
actions and reactions that feeds on the notion of mimicry. Another reason for his
failure is that he strongly believes he has pretended and that the colonized can never
become identified as the colonizer, nor can they completely follow the footsteps of
the colonizer. This sense of rootlessness is underscored by the notions put forward by
Fanon (1952) and Said (1983, 1993). For both, as I discussed in chapter 2, the
alienation and loss of identity is inevitable; the colonized imitate the ways of the
colonizer. Naipaul’s stances on mimicry are ambivalent. Of his own mimicry of
English literature Naipaul later noted, the "English language was mine, the traditions
were not" (Naipaul 1976, p. 26). For showcasing mimicry, Naipaul used the English
language but incorporated the cultural traits of Hindu words. In The Mimic Men, he
has also used different English words under the syntax and context of Hindu
language. For him, the mimicry is not a matter of subservience but of resistance, of
the root and origin of the colonized (Ferdous 2015, pp. 10-13).

5.4 Home, Exile, and Identity

Exile as an awful experience, must be considered as a separate idea. This is the

incurable enforced separation of the self from its native place and culture. The
indispensable sadness of the separation persists forever. While history and literature
depict romantic, heroic, glorious, even successful episodes during an exile’s
existence, these do little more than imply an attempt to conquer the crippling sadness
of separation (Said 2002, p. 137).

Within Naipaul’sworks this “incurable separation compelled between a native place

and a person, between the self and its real habitat,” ( Said, 2002, p.137) estranged
within the colonial encounter of the coloniser and the colonised, has been a regular

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thematic worry. The exceptional Caribbean space forms the origin of the writer and
his work. This space has developed as a multicultural and racially mixed social order
because of the confluence of social, historical, cultural, and political impacts of four
continents. Because of its proximity to the America and its supportive climate for
sugar farms,European colonisers employed the Caribbean as a nodal position and a
resettlement camp for the “seasoning” of Asian indentured workers and African
slaves. This space grew, mainly populated by immigrants, as a result of the context
of dislocation caused by demands of the imperialist financial system. These
immigrants, voluntary or not, nostalgically looked back to their motherlands, from
which they were permanently displaced. Naipaul, within his works, both fiction and
factual, points to this experience of homelessness arising from dislocation and
relocation.

Particularly within his novel, The Mimic Men, Naipaulimaginatively shows the
standpoint of his own cultural dislocations and peculiarity, foremost in Trinidad and
after that within England. He was born and reared inside a colonial British system in
Trinidad. He was a third-generation heir of Indians who had moved to Trinidad to
labor within the Caribbean sugar farms as indentured workers. Subsequently, he
moved to England during the early 1950s on a scholarship from Oxford University.
Thus Naipaul is an outcome of the colonial conditions, according to Rob Nixon, who
condemns his incapability of getting rooted in a specific cultural setting as “willed
destituteness” (Nixon 1988, p. 11), despite being a British national.

Nevetheless, Paul Theroux, Naipaul’s companion and censor, supports the writer
placing himself within a liminal space, the space of the exile. In his own phrases, he
is “without predecessors,” “without a history, a little absurd and doubtful.” His lives
in a state of destitution; the sole benefit of his condition is that it facilitates him in
growing into a laboring resident—a resident within India just like a resident
elsewhere. Also, it offers him a depth of opinion that is deprived of the metropolitan.
Every nation is a likely provisional home for the travelling individual, but for
Naipaul there is no going back, to one’s history or to a place. He is the earliest of his
kind without a home or tradition (Theroux 1972, p. 78). It is from this vantage point
that Naipaul narrates his stories, the point of the exile knowingly located at the edge
of the dominant dialogue and culture of the earlier hub of the imperial framework.

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Naipaul has investigated the interaction of the matrices of ethinicity and ancestry
from the start of his vocation, in determining the interfaces of character creation of
persons in relation to the Caribbean scenery following the collapse of the colonial
order, and depicted within his works in diverse combinations and permutations.
Necessarily, he carries “a notion of his self, of the colonial who had been brought up
amid a narrow-minded Indian society on a small, backward island within the
Caribbean and subsequently with the ethnically varied population of Port of Spain.
This is the man who had to find out the planet he had been hurled onto when trying
to understand the several strands that comprised his self,” the man who was with no
clear history or relationships, (Mishra 2003, p. ix). This “detection,” by the writer of
a self-provoked Naipaul, persists in exploring in his fiction both settings and
characters obtained from the Caribbean cultural environment. The detection strives to
endure in the more recently regrouped postcolonial Caribbean space by surpassing
the barricades of tradition.

The writer investigates his artistic involvement with the exceptional spatio-temporal
aspects of the Caribbean character within the majority of the narratives through the
exploration of people who develop their character by negotiating their destitution
within the Caribbean scenery through the standpoint of a displaced person. Naipaul’s
protagonists struggle with the descriptions of character and the rational self-
development through complicated subject places and standpoints within novels that
seem to interrupt the limits of continuity and linearity. The characters unavoidably
interelate with individual and political relationships that impinge on their being
within their relevant settings in this process. Singh faces what might be termed the
“problem to belong” within his individual conduct, just like other Naipaulian
identities.

The development of Singh, in The Mimic Men results from the wish to attempt to
locate oneself within a home and not simply a house. Singh’s building of his
character comes out as further interesting research. This is because he fails to fit
within either of the two, despite his close relationship with life in London and the
Caribbean, the previous edge and the hub of the earlier colonial tools.

For Singh, nevertheless, who deemed that “the initial necessity for satisfaction was to
be born inside a famous town” (Nailpaul 1967, p. 127), the bad luck “to be brought
up on an island such as Isabella, a strange New World of transplantation, barbarous

84
and secondhand, was to be born to sickness" (p. 127). The implication of the island
on which he is born and brought up as “strange,” “recycled,” “barbarous,” and
“disorganized,” focuses on its colonial heritance, which Ralph discovers is extremely
hard to accept. Certainly, the identity of this fictional setting strengthens its colonial
relationships. This is because

selecting the identity Isabella for an island directly created his indigenous Trinidad.
The reader is compelled by Naipaul to recall Trinidad's colonial history—first
defeated by the Spanish prior to its lengthy British colonization (1797–1962).
Representatively, to the account of detection and removal within the Caribbean, the
relationship with a royal queen identified as a key supporter of Columbus's
expenditions lines up the fictive isle of Isabella. (Phukan 2008, p. 137).

This withdrawal affects Isabella together with its dwellers, among them Ralph, who,
incapable of altering the truth of their background, attempt to let it be: “Years ago, I
decided that this background was not mine” (Naipaul 1967, p. 53). The colonial
mission starts to affect and influence Singh’s life during his infancy and teenage
years. The writer Ralph discovers himself skeptical in his own recollections, while
studying one of the first memoirs of his life in school on the island:

Presenting an apple to the instructor is my initial memoir of school and this

amazes me since there were no apples in Isabella. My recollection maintains
that it’s the apple even though it should have been an orange. Although the
edited edition is all I hold, the editing is evidently a mistake. (Naipaul 1967,
p. 97)
The argument as to whether the fruit was an orange or an apple starts therecollection
for an interesting review. The “strangeness” of the apple in the Caribbean setting
allegedly motivated from Newton’s hypothesis of gravity, adding to it the European
Enlightenment and its certain relationship with the Biblical account of the fall of
man, renders the apple a specific sign of the European self-proclaimed dominance of
religion and knowledge, two extremly vital weapons applied for colonisation.

A notable revelation regarding Isabella’s colonial history is faced by Ralph Singh

years afterward while his friend Browne notes an extremely vital aspect of the
Caribbean scenery, which Ralph had never taken seriously.

İt was revealed to me by Browne that its tropical manifestations was artificial; within
the vegetation we deemed mainly characteristic and natural, there was history. He
talked to me regarding the coconut that fringed our beaches, concerning the bamboo,

85
sugarcane, and the mango. He talked to me regarding our flowers, whose colours we
observed afresh within the postcards that were starting to emerge in our stores. He
showed me a bunch of aged fruit trees within the hub of the town: the slave supply
base site. Look over the roofs of the town from this position, and visualize! Similar
to any superior English or French park, our scenery was created. We, nevertheless,
walked within a garden of hell, amid trees, some motionless with no familiar names,
whose seeds had at times been supplied to our isle inside the slave’s intestines.
(Naipaul 1967, p. 158)

Ralph is shocked by the idea of transporting tree seeds inside the “intestines of
slaves” and the creation of French or English parks on Caribbean ground, the
colonized compelled to withstand the middle passage throughout the procedure of
displacement from their motherlands onto this “novel” land. This threatens the
colonial model that effectively grafted both people and vegetation onto selected
sceneries to attain its objectives. Moreover, the family setting of the protagonist
imported permanent impressions on him throughout his decisive years. The first
criteria that shows as Ralph’s loyalty, even at an extremely tender age, to any of his
parents’ relatives, was money and its resulting social benefits.

The attachment to his father’s relatives is not extremely encouraging:

It was a shame to be poor on Isabella while I was a kid. . . . A permanent line
of the uninspired, unenterprising and subjugated, had at all times appeared to
me to be a reason for deep disgrace for one to be inherited from a generation
of failures and idlers . . . . My father was a poor school educator. (Naipaul
1967, p. 89)
Since Ralph’s father had wedded the daughter of the local representative for Coca
Cola on the Island, a proprietor of the Bella Bella Bottling Works, Ralph is anxious
to see himself as part of his mother’s family: “I chose to lay claim to the family of
my mother. Within the island they were amongset the wealthiest and were part of
that small team identified as ‘Isabella millionaires” (Naipaul 1967, p. 89). Ironically,
Ralph does not hesitate to reap the privileges of similarity with the business of his
mother’s family, even though his father hates his in-laws and by expansion, their
product, Coca Cola:

Within Coca-Cola, therefore, I took an approximately proprietorial concern

at an early age. Even though it was a torture to me then to be mysterious, I
loved going to the bottling works. I yearned to get identification from the
workers or even some indication of overlordship . . . (Naipaul 1967, p. 90)

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The obvious improvement of his social place within the Isabella community due to
his maternal family’s ties to Coca-Cola, demonstrates Ralph’s wish to negotiate a
fruitful personality for himself at this phase of his life. Maturing on Isabella, together
with his cousin Cecil and his infancy associates Deschampsneufs, Evans, Hoks, and
Browne, Ralph grows up in a process of playing at responsibility and mimicry. In his
school days, he sees his friend Hok, a product of varied parentage, attempt to evade
recognizing his mother openly since she is a negro. One schoolboy says,

“Sir, Hok moved past his mother barely now and he did not talk to her at
all.” The educator, showing unanticipated depths, was shocked. “Is this real,
Hok? Your parent, young man? We searched for the mother, the concealed
being whom Hok came across each day, had bid goodbye to her that dawn
and was to come across her once more within two hours or so during
lunchhour. She was certainly a shock, a Negro woman of the persons, short
and stocky, quite unexceptional. She toddled away, unmoved herself to the
son she had simply moved past. (Naipaul 1967, p. 103)
Ralph and the rest of the boys observe Hok’s embarassing “disloyalty into
ordinariness” and his disqualification from “that individual environmet where rested
his real life” (p. 104) when the educator compels Hok to speak to his mother. The
attempted rebuff by Hok of his mother because of her distinctive ethinic personality,
and Ralph’s wish to show off his maternal relatives, undermine the wish the boys
sense to accept or discard significant factors of their personality so as to obtain the
utmost benefit.

Still, Ralph’s name contains an interesting past. Within one of the earliest self-
awareness actions in developing his own personality, Ralph decides to change his
name to echo his companion Deschampsneufs (the child of a French family that
altered their profession from the slavebreeders tohorse breeders) whose identity,
apart from the surname, comprised five brief and normal French terms whose
“collection of the normal wonderfully recommended the unexpected” (100). He
alters his first name, Ranjit Kripal Singh, to Ralph Ranjit Kripal Singh, abridged to
R. R. K. Singh or Ralph Singh, within the civic domain. Initially, this change
remains unrecognized both within his family and at school: “. . . I was merely Singh
R. From eight years of age untill twelve years of age. This was one of my deep
coverts. I dreaded detection at home and at school.” (p. 100)

When his birth document eventually reveals the difference in Singh’s name,he
justifies himself to his surprised schoolteacher: “’My covert identity is Ranjit,’ I
stated. ‘It is a tradition amid Hindus of definite social groups. My true name is the

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covert name but it must not be employed in public’” (Naipaul 1967, p. 100). Thence
rests essentiality the inclusion of “Ralph” as his “calling identity,” so insignificant
that it “may be used in vain by any person” (p. 101). An authentication from the
father of the protagonist to change the name in line with the so-styled Hindu rite of
employing diverse names for independent and public utilize is needed. The father is
“. . . not happy at having to sign a sworn statement that the child he had born into the
planet as Ranjit Kripalsingh had been changed into Ralph Singh” (p. 101). The
capability to persuade his condemining elders and the effective change of his name
generally stresses Ralph’s ability to use others to advance his own concerns, even as
a kid,.

Ralph similarly does not hesitate to exploit his father’s meteoric but temporary soar
to fame at a later phase in his life, one that is immediately changed to dishonor
within the communal and faith structure of the island. To Ralph, the father had
departed his work rapidly and transformed into the Gurudeva, the religious head who
sacrifices to his disciples

a sort of Hinduism that he explained; a combination of the logical and the

mad. To several persons, he gave something; but it was his case and his
existence instaed of his teaching that mattered. His campaign spread similar
to fire. (Naipaul 1967, p. 138)
The Gurudeva familiy––that is, Ralph, his mother, and sister––in spite of their
reluctance, discover themselves covered inside the folds of the fresh-found eminence
of the Gurudeva that persists to expand until the event of the horse offering. Together
with his servants, Gurudeva allegedly offers Deschampsneufs’ award-winning race
horse, Tamango, as a section of a rite for the “aswamedha.” Tamango’s dissected
body, garlanded by means of flowers, was “offensive and obscene to every person on
that sport-crazed isle. . .” (Naipaul 1967, p. 152). Rapidly, this event reduces
Gurudeva’s stature, and he draws into a lonely life. The father’s temporary public
fame nevertheless serves its role afterward when the child exploits the majority of his
East Indian genealogical decline and the Gurudeva’s open request that he begin his
own political vocation on the isle.

Ralph’s mastery of deciding whether or not to highlight or to overlook, or attempt to

change specific features of his personality, for maximum benefit in his youth,
therefore, foretells the incidents of his later life. The place he has dwelled forms
another cornerstone of his personality he badly desires to change. The rustling and

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swaying of coconut trees and the hissing and crashing of the white waves on the
broad sandy beaches during a family tour to a beach house of Cecil’s father seem
unable of provoking Ralph’s receptivity. He views the ocean as the “living,
damaging component . . . Not my component. I favoured land; I chose snow and
mountains” (p. 114).

In Ralph, a personality crisis is instigated by the sea scenery around Isabella, which
adds to his sense of destitution. His overwhelming wish from which he suffers in his
adolesecnt years, to manipulate his origin and get away from the island, stays
detained to the realm of his vision, unlike the successful change of his identity,
which Ralph had completed during his school years.

Getting up in the mornings to rain and mist and harmful climate, in a planet
of infinite plains, tall naked mountains, white with snow at their apex, amidst
wanderers on horseback I led a covert life. I could vision that all over the
plains of Central Asian the horsemen searched their chief and I was a Singh.
A wise man after that approached them and stated, “. . . Your true chief lies
farther away, stranded on an isle, such people as you cannot envision.”
(Naipaul 1967, p. 105)
Ralph’s relentless wish for both location and lineage in this vision comingles within
the image of the stranded person, an image that repeats throughout diverse scenes
within the narrative. Within the roles of both orator and central character, Ralph
underlines his persistent wish to get away from Isabella from the outset of his novel.
“Moreover, what was an unharmed young man doing here, stranded tribal chief on an
Unidentified coast, awaiting liberate, awaiting vessels entrance of curious form to
return to his hills? Poor boy, poor ruler” (p. 11).

An additional desire Ralph has less awareness of in early life is his desire to escape.
Terms such as “ruler” and “chieftain” predict his future career as a politician. During
a sports event at his school, his constant desire to get away from the Caribbean space
begins to take form in effect when he decides to employ education as an alternative
to achieving at the slightest one of his irresistible wants: “I desired to create a fresh,
clean begining. Furthrmore, it was now that I decided to seek my rulership within
that actual world and to abandon the stranded island and everything on it. . .”
(Naipaul 1967, p. 118). This wish faintly shows the slow maturation of the former
stranded leader wanting to aggressively “depart” the isle and wait inactively “to be
liberated” as the tribal chief. The chance to swap sandy coasts for sceneries of plains,
rivers, mountains, and snow occurs when Ralph starts his first cruise to London,

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going to do higher level research on a sponsorship. “Fresh air! Get away! To greater
fears, to huge men, to greater lands, to continents having hills five miles tall and
rivers so broad you could not notice the other side. . . . Farewell to this surrounding,
soiled sea!” (p. 179).

Ralph embraces London like the “great town, centre of the planet, wherein, fleeing
disorder, I had anticipated to discover the starting of order,” departing behind the
“soiled” sea encircling Isabella (Naipaul 1967, p. 18). He attempts his greatest feat,
to get used to himself in the former city of the Empire, although he cannot correct his
letdown at not being born inside a renowned city. When he observes snow for the
first time, he is besieged: “Snow. Eventually, my element. Further these were the
chips, the airiest trampled ice. Further than crushed: trembled” (p. 4).

Nevertheless, for Ralph, snow and not the ocean as his element remains tricky
because the purity and perfection that he realizes within the snow leaves him in
confused: “Still what was I to accomplish with extremely complete a splendor?”
(Naipaul 1967, p. 5). Ralph’s eagerness for the scenery as he perceives the disparity
between the sunset in the Caribbean and the sunset in his new background,
nevertheles, is not diminished by his doubt to react to the fullness of the splendor of
the snow-enveloped scenery of England:

“there is no light similar to that of the temperate region. Such was a light that
attracted colour out from the objects’ heart and offered firmness to
everything. From the tropics, the place day was succeeded by night
suddenly, to me dusk was fresh and charming.” (p. 17)
The lights’ effect of the “temperate zone” on nearby objects at this point make them
seem multi-colored in Ralph’s “tropical” visualization.

Nevertheless, to his disappointment, Ralph soon finds out that, within the London
cityscape, the glow that lit up the firmness and color the scenery also revealed its
emptiness:

. . . there was the town, the planet. I waited for the blossoming to get nearer
to me. The canal was pierced and edged with light reflections of blue, and
yellow and red. While every man went back to his own cell, the tram was
packed with individuals. The warehouses and factories were empty and
deceitful, whose outer lights garlanded the river. While I stood on bridges
and walked bare roads I would play with prominent names. However, the
charm of names soon weakened. There that renowned building, here was the
stream, here the bridge. Nevertheless, the god was covered. My chants of
names stayed unanswered. So concrete in its light, inside the great city that
offered colour still to unrendered solid—to me as pale as decaying wooden

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 hedges and fresh corrugated-iron roofs—inside this metropolis existence was
two-dimensional. (Naipaul 1967, p. 18)
In the eyes of Ralph, the loss of meaning of the English buildings, streets and bridges
and the loss of color now renders inevitable that he questions his view of the
Caribbean scenery and look back at Isabella through a changed lens.

Disappointed so quickly following his physical severance from the Caribbean, slowly
Ralph starts to notice that simply moving to a further developed area of the planet is
inadequate for painting his personality in a more positive light. The incredible
change of his character Ralph had envisioned would take place within London does
not come to pass, causing him a sense of insecurity:

For the entire ongoing awareness of completeness and sanity, we can

observe how distant we had turned out to be unclear. Moving to London, the
vast city, looking for order, seeking the blossoming, the expansion of myself
that should have reached me within a city of such incredible light, I had
attempted to speed up a procedure that had appeared subtle. I had attempted
to offer myself an individuality. More than once previously, it was
something I had attempted and waited for the reaction within other peoples’
eyes. However, now I no longer understood what I was; objective became
bemused, then weakened. . . Stranded. Before, I have applied this term. It
was the term that at all times came to me amid my island setting. Once again
in that great city, this is what I sensed I had experienced: this sense of being
wandering, a cell of insight, little further, that may be changed if simply
rapidly through any encounter. (Naipaul 1967, p. 27)
Ralph retreats to his island setting following the failure to discover a new character
for himself and the effects of the weakening of his long-treasured goal. He suffers a
“shipwreck,” once more, since geographically England and Isabella are both islands.
His futile attempt to relate his character to the locale he occupies, which formerly
caused him hate the “tainted” Isabellan seascape, now compels him to attempt to
come to agreement with the locale he was born and reared in: “I discovered myself
yearning for the assurances of my existence on the Isabella island, assurances that I
had once disregarded as shipwreck . . . . I got rid of sceneries from my memory. I got
rid of every scenery that I could not link myself to and yearned simply for those I had
recognised. I considered escape but it was to get away to what I had so currently
sought to get away from (pp. 26, 27,31).

This yearning for the “assurances” of his life on Isabella, when positioned inside
London, echoes his earlier longing for the fantansy retrieval of the space inhabited by
his ancestors of Central Asia. Ralph’s feeling of destitution on Isabella, due to his
longing for a land he had simply envisioned as a part of rivers and mountains, is

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replaced in London by his nostalgia for the island he was more accustomed to. As a
result, his direct conflict with the English space of London changes Ralph, desperate
to just retrieve those scenes with which he was well aquainted. His former desire to
get away from his place of origin becomes the desire to “return back” to his own
nation. His ambivalence and duality with both the English and Caribbean setting at
this phase of his life increases his feelings of dislocation and desitution.

He had renounced the sea earlier and acknowledged the snow as his “component.” At
the moment he asserts a dual likeness with such components: “. . . therefore, I had by
now made the duo trip between my two sceneries of snow and sea” (Naipaul 1967, p.
31). Nevertheless, Ralph fails to experience “at home” in both settings and this
incapability compels him to remove himself from one to the other in quick
progression: “I experienced I had recognised a double let down, and I experienced I
persisted to exist between their double risks” (p. 32). Ralph persists to alternate
between these two places on numerous occasions in search for the spatial aspct of his
personality, unidentified to him at this moment in time. “I believed I had bid farewell
to each, at the initial parting because I had got to understand each within my own
manner” (p. 31).

Ralph returns to London as a politician from Caribbean; his ultimate exile is foretold
in going back to Isabella. Naipaul demonstrates the stage of Ralph’s life between his
ultimate exile to London and his return to Isabella as a “duration in parenthesis”
(Naipaul 1967, p. 32). Accompanied by his English wife Sandra, his return to
Isabella marks the starting point of a vital episode in his life. Ralph, now forty, looks
back on his wedding as an “episode” (p. 42). From the start of this relationship, the
seeds of the ultimate collapse of the “dark love of the varied marriage” (p. 51) are
there. Ralph’s memory of his “textbook case of misguided marriage” (p. 42) starts by
recognizing Sandra as the inventor of this temporary union: “And actually marriage
was her thought” (p. 42). Ironically, Sandra’s command over her speech (p. 45),
separation from her community and family (p. 46), and “capability for creating
events” (p. 46) seemed to Ralph as the “correct foundation for an affiliation” (p. 47),
right from their first unintentional meeting close to the notice-board of their school.
This, in spite of having “looks that were of the sort that enhances with the power and
maturity definition” (p. 44). The physical closeness Sandra offers him Ralph now
views as her determination and dutifulness (p. 50).

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The few individual particular responses to Ralph and Sandra’s marriage emphasize
the conflicting public view of this union. The anticipation for the couple’s joy of
Ralph’s landlady, Mrs. Ellis, who is misguided by Sandra to trust them as wedded
even prior to the celebration occurs, is weakened by her downplayed uncertainty
concerning Ralph’s choice of a bride (Naipaul 1967, p. 49). Likewise, the registrar of
marriage worries for Sandra provokes him to offer her the “address of an
organization that gave information and security to British women abroad” (p. 51).
The wedding celebration underlines his suspicions of Sandra’s choice of a husband.
Particularly, the unfavourable response of Ralph’s mother to her English daughter-in-
law, during the pair’s disembarkation at a dock in Isabella, compels Ralph to look for
shelter inside a hotel. A transitory and temporary residence, the hotel helps the
couple to create ties with an “unbiased, fluid group” of youthful and “emmigrant”
Caribbean experts who have educated and married overseas (p. 57). This relationship
persists even following the couple’s move to their marital residence. Meanwhile,
Ralph’s birthright of “a 120-acre of badlands simply outside the town” (p. 60), from
his maternal grandfather, helps him to make a living developing this ground into
“Kripalville—that was the identity I offered the development, rapidly ruined to
Crippleville” (p. 61). Ultimately, Crippleville “obtained a reputation that was to
endure” (p. 63) and turn out to be a successful industry project for Ralph.

Nevertheless, Ralph’s monetary achievement begins to become the inverse of the

breakdown of his union with Sandra. “What forms a marriage? What renders a
residence having two persons vacant? For sure, we were well-suited, even
corresponding. However, it was this very well-suited that moved her farther from
me” (Naipaul 1967, p. 71). The pair start to sleep in separate rooms since Ralph
slowly perceives his feeling towards his wife altering: “The exact things I had at one
time liked in her—rightness, ambition, confidence—were what I currently
sympathises her for” (p. 71). Sandra starts to argue with the majority of their friends
and at last finishes: “I propose this should be the mainly inferior locale within the
globe . . . . Inferior persons and expats, dreadfully inferior and dreadfully happy. The
two should go as one.” (pp. 71-72)

Sandra as well is uncomfortable, as is Ralph, both in the former colony and in the
city. Matching Ralph’s dissatisfaction at being born on Isabella, and his ineffective
efforts to experience the sense of being “at home” in London, Sandra looks on

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England as “the nation she had desired to escape from,” since in London, “no group
or relatives awaited her” (Naipaul 1967, p. 72) and the hired house in Isabella did not
give her a healthier option. At last both Sandra and Ralph begin to accredit the
unhappiness of their union to the impact of the hired residence where they dwell.
Ralph employs the symbol of colonization to underline their incapability to transform
the residence into their home:

Was it the residence? . . . Both of us considered it appealing but for some

ground we had not at all thrived in colonizing it. Big parts of it stayed
vacant; it experienced similar to a rented residence that rapidly has to return
to its possessor. It had not at all appeared vital to us to own a residence of
our own. I had no sense for the residence as home, as individual formation. I
owned no items, no resources, no set even of books, no household gods, like
Sandra would have stated; and despite a few school rewards, neither had she.
(p. 74)
The temporary nature of their possession of a house, caused by this incapability of
making the house into a home, provokes Ralph to construct his own residence at
Crippleville, imitating the Roman houses of Herculaneum and Pompeii (Naipaul
1967, p. 74). Nevetheless, even the building of the Roman house does no succeed to
cement the gaps endangering the union of Sandra and Ralph. Ralph starts to look for
physical closeness in extramarital connections and he suspects that Sandra as well
takes remedy in the same ways.

My school days habits that had never completely died were now renewed. I
had become familiar with several women of different races, of greatest
caution on the island; like previously, what had been an lavishness turned
out to be an obsession, but now remorseful and clinical. (p. 74)
Sandra at last separates from Ralph, who looks on her exit as the logical result of his
worsening association with her.

After all, Sandra was in a place to depart; other relations awaited her, other
nations. I had no place to move to; I desired to see no fresh sceneries; I had
detached myself from that greed that I yet accredited to her. The choice to
leave was hers only since I did not contribute all. (Naipaul 1967, p. 80)
Prior to her departure, nevertheless, Sandra makes an extremely ominous declaration
that might be understood as summing up her marriage to Ralph. She declares: “The
Niger is a branch of that Seine” (Naipaul 1967, p. 84). The Seine is the key river of
Northwestern France; the Niger trickles on the western region of Africa. At this
period the rivers are not yet distantly linked to every other; the link between the two,
however, emerges when situated against the setting of imperialism and colonialism.
The majority of the African region by which the Niger River streams was the section

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of the French colonial region identified as French West Africa. Thus Sandra’s
declaration brings into glaring focus the diverse socio-cultural backdrop of Sandra
and Ralph and their relevant locations within the postcolonial settings. Moreover, it
underlines their racial disparity, one that results in Ralph’s family’s disapproval of
Sandra and, subsequently, the marriage’s ultimate collapse.

Following Sandra’sdeparture Ralph advances to the next step of building his

vocation as a politician. “My wedding and the political vocation that succeeded it
and appeared to trickle from it, I have stated that all that active section of my
existence happened within a sort of afterthought (Naipaul 1967, p. 199).

His childhood friend Browne serves as the catalyst that inspires Ralph to attempt his
fate as a politician. Ralph agrees to write a piece concerning his father for a daily,
known as The Socialist, following Browne’s persistence that marks the start of the
project. Ironically, although it turns out to be the scene of Ralph’s initial political and
literary activity, the Roman house has failed to maintain his marriage: “Our
agreement was made there inside the Roman residence—the place I had readied the
site for an event with an overall diverse matter (Naipaul 1967, p. 203). Ralph’s
article’s publication marks the start of his political vocation, a profession begun
successfully as compared to the Roman house background.

The moment of truth rested within the Roman house. Furthermore, it rested
within our irrefutable achievement. We drew encouragement from all classes
and all races. As it immediately emerged, we offered in excess of discharge
from resentment. Drama is what we offered. (p. 213)
Ralph attempts to blend in with the position of politician under Browne’s guidance:
“He offered me my responsibility and I did not rebuff him” (Naipaul 1967, p. 204).
The creativess of the blend of Browne and Ralph gave the islanders an option to the
seasoned Isabela politicians:

. . . we were a case of what was possible and desirable. In intellect we had

the assets and offers of endorsement to put the system in question itself. We
deprived of rivarly; and certainly there was no competition. Browne, myself
and The Socialist, just by coming forth jointly—we brought the old to an
end. It was just that. (p. 207)
Under Browne, Ralph develops a public figure for himself that builds on the basis for
his first political achievements:

I had turned out to be a public image and an appealing one. That was the
character Browne had observed: the wealthy man having a definite name
who had stood for the poor, who seemed to have turned his back on his

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 former friends and on making money. Therefore, in the unfavorable states
the London great was revived. During those early days, it was appealing
simply to be this self. I had not known anything similar to it. (Naipaul 1967,
p. 210)
Browne’s adroit and effective administration of Ralph’s public figure to attain most
political gain “. . . resulted in the unavoidable: the achievement of voting night, the
flag-waving, the cheering, the drinking” (Naipaul 1967, p. 217). This skillfully
organised electoral success indicates the tone of Ralph’s vocation as a politician. He
takes contentment in the privilege of his role as a politician, initially to name roads,
streets, documents, government buildings, and anything else that coincides with his
beliefs. Moreover, he “dedicates his effort to ribbons cutting and launching roads,
schools, laundries, filling stations, and shoe-shops and guarantees his visibility by
pictures with foreign citizens to enhance his public figure (pp. 234-235). This turn in
his personhood reproduces his childhood wish to ally himself with the Bella Bella
Bottling Works to improve his social place.

Nevertheless, as the euphoria of electoral success declines, Ralph notices that

underneath the personality of the “public great, the political schemer and the
planner,” he is not a politician like Browne, since the prospect of a view within
Isabella “exhausted” him (Naipaul 1967, p. 225). He notices the politician’s
helplessness in accomplishing the pledges he and his party gave to the natives who
elevated him to victory. Througout their election campaign, the men of Browne and
Ralph’s party, in a swap for votes, have pledged to “eradicate poverty within twelve
months,” to “eradicate bicycle permits,” to offer “farmers superior prices for copra
and cocoa and sugar,” to “renegotiate the bauxite payments,” to “take over every
foreign-run estate,” and yet to “send the whites into the ocean and return the Asiatics
to Asia. They pledged; they guaranteed...” (p. 216). Now, encountered with truth that
makes him unable to achieve those pladges, Ralph recognizes two causes that render
the “colonial” politician a “simple subject of satire” compelling him to “revisit his
own sayings” and “let himself down” in such a way that “in the conclusion he has no
resaon to secure his own continued existence. The backup he has drawn, not perfect
to perfect, but resentment to resentment, he lets down and crushes; emancipation is
not likely for everyone” (p. 228). The initial cause is the constant reliance of the
lately autonomous postcolonial country on its earlier “centre of authority,” which
enables the persistence of the previous colonizer’s prevalence (neo-colonialism)
within the internal issues of the new nations. “A colony we were, a compassionately

96
administered reliance. Our politics were a funny tale as long as our reliance stayed
unquestioned” (p. 206).

The subsequent cause Ralph notices is the failure of the bigger social framework of
the freshly independent community to produce its own internal authority source:

. . . within a community such as ours, divided, inorganic, no connection

between background and man, a community not held jointly by universal
concerns, there was no real internal power source, and that no authority was
true that did not come from the exterior. With such eagerness, such was the
regulated chaos we had ushered on ourselves. (Naipaul 1967, p. 224)
This reliance on the external power source to resolve the managerial troubles of his
nation foretells Ralph’s ultimate letdown and shame as a politician. He encounters
three duties in the politician’s capability of raising challenges that try his abilities to
the highest. His initial difficulty is in handling the monetary strain on the nation’s
economy, brought about because of the costs suffered for endorsing the English
expatriates hired within the managerial area of the island country’s public service.
“Every emmigrant priced us double as much as a native person” (Naipaul 1967, p.
228). To solve the issue, Ralph and his associates manipulate the community opinion
and shift the focus from the costly white workers to the equally costly and, further,
unpleasant colored public workers who have drained away the nations’s riches for
their individual gain (pp. 228-229).

The subsequent trial comprises the rebargaining of the bauxite treaty with the
independent corporations that have mined bauxite on Isabella. Ralph is tactfully
snubbed when he attempts to relay the local demand to the suitable quarter by the
corporations who compare the inefficient bauxite grade of Isabella with the superior
affordability and quality of Jamaican, South American, and Australian bauxite.
Ralph, taking the cue successfully, counteracts his countrymen by quietly
underlining the effects of offending these corporations that own the reigns of the
nation’s financial system:

We were risking with our future by creating too much problems; still like it
was, there was so much to cease the entire corporations departing Isabella,
and after that the citizens might play providing they were satisfied with the
red soil. . . Besides, for the construction of an alumina firm, any level of
doubt concerning the future may bring about the abandonment of strategies
well under way. An investment of several millions it was. (Naipaul 1967, p.
237)
Ralph achieves his highest political accomplishment through this victory. “Decline
was to be fast following this” (p. 238). He is incapable of maintaining his role and

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power within the community and the third trial hastens his decline, similar to his
father before him. “I was at the core of proceedings that I could not manage. I was
conscious of feeling concentrating on me (p. 239).

While Ralph’s character has deepened he inevitably finds himself ensnared into the
role of completing a duty that London had decisively excluded to him as unfeasible.
To maintain appearances and regulate the explosion of the local masses that have
started assuming a racial personality, a delegation including Ralph is relayed to
London (Naipaul 1967, p. 239). This second trip to London, now in his official
capability, conflicts deeply with his former journey as a student, to find a home
within the city. “Of course, there would be a come back but that would be within the
form of a visit, an assuring of what I understood would be there (p. 242). The
delegation arrives at London and is accomodated at the temporary site of a hotel
where they linger for three days ahead of their timetable to meet the officials from
England.

Ralph’s memoir contradicts the ambience, glamour, and amenities of his temporary
house, the hotel that “exudes its magic to the metropolis” (Naipaul 1967, p. 243) for
its dwellers with its hint of a plain workplace for all its workers. Ralph uses his time
contradicting his previous recollections of London to its current reality, whereas his
aides get occupied in discovering the city. “I attempted to be a traveller within the
city that once had educated me the unfeasibility of get away” (pp. 243-244). The
delegation is finally given audience and after that sent away by the English
representatives who stipulate their unyielding position of anti-nationalization in
apparent and precise terms. Ralph pulls one final desperate effort to persuade an
English official in what becomes a short but embarrassing incident. The official’s
approach shows evidently that the game has continued long enough and he has other
matters more important than helping the public affairs of colonial politicians.

He painted so dynamically, in around forty-five seconds, an image of the

effects of any intemperate activity by the Isabella government that I sensed
individually rebuked. After that I stated the sentence that tormented me
approximately immediately I had stated it. It was this that no hesitation made
the consultation very painful in memory. “How can I get this news back to
my natives?” I asked. “My citizens”: because of that I merit all I got. He
stated: “You can relay back to your natives any news you wish.” That
marked the end. (p. 245)
The conclusion of the unproductive meeting preserves the future of Ralph. While the
rest of the representatives return to Isabella, Ralph remains in London to restore his

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friendship with Lord Stockwell and his relatives. Stockwell had twice met “the
Gurudeva” and his sugar farms are as well threatened in the issue of the
nationalization that affects Isabella. Ralph even gets involved in a temporary affair
with Stella, the daughter of Stockwell, drawn by her “capability for delight, for
instance I had discovered in Sandra, but with no Sandra’s suffering” (Naipaul 1967,
p. 252).

Ralph returns to the Roman residence in Isabella after around eight days to discover
that a “vast, conflicting but a fulfilling case” has been created against him to shame
him openly. “My individual life—my systematic money making, the ethnic
exclusivity of my improvement at Crippleville, my affiliation to Wendy, my wedding
to Sandra, my jaunt with Stella—the entire this was applied to advance the image of
my public masquerade” (Naipaul 1967, p. 260). Abandoned by all his associates, as
well as Browne, and the ensuing race riots within Isabella compels Ralph to accept
from the fresh regime, the “offer of a secure and free shift, to London once more
through the air, with a luggage of sixty-six pounds and fifty thousand dollars” (p.
264).

On this third trip to England, Ralph attempts frantically to get a place for himself:
“when i arrived, I chose not to reside within London. . . I desired to evade meeting
any person I knew” (Naipaul 1967, p. 271). His desire for a lasting house outside
London guides him to travel persistently across the scenery of Britain:

I moved from small city to small city every day, through unreliable bus
services, making complex links, looking for shelter alongside my luggage of
sixty-six pounds, always conscious during the late afternoon of my looming
destituteness. I spent the hours of day time with short durations of travel
lengthy waits. Funds, of which I was eventualy conscious, was spilling out
of my pocket. (p. 272)
His unfruitful trip goes on until he notices that for a man “standing at the maximum
of misery having sixty-six pounds of baggage within two Antler suitcases, focussing
on the instant” (Naipaul 1967, p. 273), there was no healthier city to reside in apart
from London. He returns to the metropolis that he had recognised as a student, a
politician, and finally as a refugee-immigrant (p. 266), and gets a room in Mr.
Shylock’s lodging house-come-inn on Kensington High Street. This trip symbolizes
for Ralph his loyalty to the fourfold separation of life explained by his Aryan
descedants, for he has developed from student to a houseowner, then to a man of
relationships who has lastly morphed into an outsider (p. 274).

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Quite the opposite of those who use the hotel as a place of humanity, Ralph “suits in”
the hotel together with the other longterm inmates, several who had remained there
for twenty-three years. Ralph’s extended stay at the hotel starts to promote a “logic
of belonging” within him that all his earlier homes within Isabella had botched,
andhe starts to discover himself with the“non-place” as his dwelling.

I used to consider of this existence as the life of the disfigured when I

foremost came here. However, we who fit in here are neither disfigured nor
extremely aged. Three-quarters of the males in this hotel are of my age; they
hold respectable jobs to which they leave in their vehicles each morning. We
are the individuals who for one cause or the other have ran away from our
relevant nations from the metropolis where we discover ourselves, from our
relatives. We have got away from pointless roles and affiliation. We have
made our existences simple. I cannot trust that our establishment is
exceptional. It consoles me to consider that within this city only there should
be hundreds and thousands similar to us. (Naipaul 1967, pp. 269-270)
This recognition with place assists Ralph’s advance from the singular “I” to the
plural “we.” He not only finds a place to attach his own personality, but as well
discovers how to share that room with the other “prisoners.”

İmmediately Ralph learns to position himself within the steady site granted by the
hotel. He obtains a writing bench from the hotel, positions it next to the window and
starts to write his recollections, instilling order on his own account through
transcribing his “dynamic life” of forty years inside a narrative structure. During this
procedure, he is capable of defeating the shapelessness of his experiences mainly
because of the order, series, and reliability of the hotel background.
It never occurred to me that I would have grown to relish the constriction
and order of hotel life, which previously had driven me to despair; and that
the contrast between my unchanging room and the slow progression of what
was being created there would give me such satisfaction. (Naipaul 1967, p.
267)
Ralph takes three or so years to cover his narrative in a story outline. When he begins
writinghe imagines the likelihood of employing his writing like a foundation to make
a new vocation for himself:

The monetary support at the end would be little, I understood. However, I

considered there was an excellent opportunity that publication may bring
about some kind of uneven, pleasant employment: articles and reviews on
“third world” issues or colonial . . . even on incident to involve in the safe
banter of a radio debate . . . several little place in television. . . . (Naipaul
1967, p. 266)
Finally, when he finishes his recollection, Ralph’s first objective alters considerably:
“It never happened to me that this book writing may have turn out to be a conclusion

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in itself, that the transcribing of a life may become an expansion of that existence”
(Naipaul 1967, p. 267).

Naipaul’s stance of estrangement, exile, and homelessness with England, Trinidad

and “the solitary life of the writer, along with an awareness that he was becoming a
voice of the postcolonial world and its discontents, found expression in The Mimic
Men, which gained the W. H. Smith Prize.” (King, p 12) Andrew Gurr summarizes
the decision of Ralph’s personality crisis, claiming that within his exiled state writing
turns out to be an act of liberation. Within the novel’s setting this personality
liberates him from the responsibility of the colonial mimicker, the title’s definition
(Gurr 1981, p. 85). Throughout his life, Ralph had looked for authentication of his
own personality within the eyes of others. Therefore, he rendered himself flexible
enough to suit the responsibilities others formed for him, imitating them so as to
evade the battle of developing his personality on his own conditions. It is only when
he detaches himself fully throughout his exile that he gets to agreement with his own
self. Gurr relates the detection Ralph’s self together with that of his inventor:
“following numerous years of globetrotting as an expert reporter, Naipaul’s logic of
personality took shape in The Mimic Men about the banished writer’s eventual
protection, artistic liberty. Just art can provide a truthfully logical order to undergo”
(Gurr 1981, p. 85). Thus, for both Ralph Singh and Naipaul, ensnared within them
the postcolonial settings located at the edge of the city, literature offers the private
room they “yearn to fit in.” As Said claimed, “when it is real that history and
literature has heroic, glorious, romantic, even victorious incidents within an exile’s
existence, these are not much more than attempts destined to conquer the weakening
sorrow of rift” (Said 2002, p.137).

5.5 Exile, Identity and Estrangement

The world has witnessed diversity of exiles, expatriation, mass refugees and
resettlement, which have changed the forms of national and individual identities and
traditions following the decline of the British Empire and the rise of America as a
superpower in the twentieth century. The Third World writing of the twentieth
century printed by the emigrants used the dilemmas of the diaspora with its distinct
attributes since every age generates writing which supports and motivates it. A
number of these professional novelists, who live as emigrants in either England or

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America in the postcolonial age, put in to the development of the emigrant writing as
well as cope with their homelessness, exiled condition, displacement, and
estrangement. An individual living outside his country without legitimate citizenship
or feeling the social and cultural void of exile is called an expatriate.

Regardless of his marriage and extended stay in England, V. S. Naipaul, could not
liberate himself from his constant feeling of exile, estrangement and displacement.
Naipaul is completely separated and thus a citizen of everywhere and nowhere. His
world of fiction is a clear manifestation of his emigrant feelings and his pursuit for
recognition. Naipaul is endorsed expression of displacement as Paul Theroux states:

"He classifies with resettled individuals who belongs to no country in particular.

They move since they don’t belong to anywhere; they settle not, as they are endlessly
travelling... They are rootless; . . . a certain pain emanates from their homeless
condition, just like every other traveler, they asked, "Where do you come from?" and
no straightforward answer is achievable: every scenery is foreign.''

The description of his expatriate responsiveness and his self concept reveals the
discomforts of his displacement and estrangement while at the same time renders
him skeptical about other inclusive traditions of the Indian culture.

Apparently, V. S. Naipaul had permanent causes for his emigrant life and is giving
an account of self exile. He experiences emotional and physical displacement from
his mother country. In the 1880s, Naipaul’s grandfather had moved from India as a
contracted worker. He took on the art of a novelist from his father and developed his
aspiration to become a reputable writer. His movement from Trinidad to some other
centers was dictated by his father's unsuccessful life. It was in Chaguanas where
Naipaul’s family became the heart of an entire system of Hindu venerations. The
residents would often come to the Chaguanas home to bring gifts of food, to give out
invitations, or to pay their tributes even though they were alone unconfirmed by that
Chaguanas nation of Trinidad. His religious background could not permit him to
classify his life with the Chaguanas and therefore his sense of estrangement and exile
is contributed by his marginal life. His emigrant feeling explains his chosen
destitution with minimum chances of ever going back to Trinidad. Speaking factually
and not just employing the image of refugee or exile, Naipaul cautions on his choice
of exile. He claims, as an artist without roots, to have an exclusive chance to reside in

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more than two continents even with his strong disapproval of the races. As an
absolutely separated individual, he took refuge as a writer to collect immense
experiences and support fictional writings.

The subject of estrangement and exile is permeating into the writing of twentieth
century that it may be referred to as the literature of exile. It demonstrates the
disappointment characterized by the two post-war eras and profound religious
seclusion suffered by man in a world where he sees himself as insignificant and
foreign. Obviously, numerous of intellectual exiles are the significant literary names
of this age. It is only in literature that one recalls instantly of Rushdie, Selvon, and
V.S. Naipaul.

The Naipaul's original literary work describes his autobiographical life in Trinidad
and also investigates the exile, alienation and separation of Ralph Sing during
postcolonial and colonial eras. In his memoirs, The Mimic Men, gives an account of
the idea of exile alongside its consequence including the issues of displacement,
identity, cultural disparity, rootlessness, alienation, pointlessness, and integration.

The Mimic Men commences with Ralph Singh, who is a deported politician,
exhausted by cynicism more than weakness, putting down his autobiography in a
London suburb. He is the symbol of an age that acquires authority at independence
and is able to only imitate the legitimacy of the personality. He gives an account of
his infancy and maturity, his marriage and political vocation, his life in England and
in Isabella, and his schooling so as to describe his history and to appreciate himself.
By writing his autobiography, Ralph Singh attempts to restructure his personality,
enforce order on his life, and dispose of the crippling sense of exile and
displacement. In actual sense, colonization can be defined as a process that removes
ones sense of place, identity, past and culture and that Singh represents the
disheartened and displaced colonial victims. Ralph Singh, a London’s expatriate, an
optimistic champion of the autobiographical of The Mimic Men contemplates on the
scraps which constitute his life and contributes to politics to a larger extents although
he is unable to give in and thus is compelled to migrate in humiliation. He gives up
all ambitions due to the denial of all social aspects of success including money
friends, wife, leadership, home, status and children. Ralph Singh’s range of
weaknesses at the personal level of life account for the failure of Isabella, the island,
since there is left the infertile emigrants in London. Ralph Singh remarkably states:

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"To be born on an island similar to Isabella, a vague New World transplantation, and
second hand and barbarous was to be born to confusion."

Like an authentic exile and appreciating the notion of being provisional as an

expatriate, Singh drew in his writing the conclusion that the exile foreigners in
London such as himself are the individuals who for one cause or another have left
their families, their cities and their original homelands. As a novelist, in the The
Mimic Men, he expresses his own experiences into literary form to adjust to his own
exile. The subjects of exile, displacement and estrangement still haunt Naipaul
although the viewpoint has altered.

The theme of exile, displacement and estrangement is pervasive in the modern

writing. V. S. Naipaul is disturbed by the countless movement, displacement,
estrangement, exile, the idea of being unstable and dislocated and the mystery of
humiliating experience in the volatile and the distressing certainties of the
contemporary world. He is an itinerant intellectual in the Third World ground and a
perpetual stranger, a West Indian in England and an Indian in West Indies. He
respects his Hindu identity, being a Brahmin traveler, and as a novelist he faces the
anguish of isolation but efforts to set up his self by transforming challenges into
pitiful writings on the custom and traditions of England, Trinidad and India. His
sensibility of exile, displacement and alienation is principally the consequence of the
both crisis of Diaspora feeling in London where he resided for thirty years and
disconnection from Trinidadian people among whom he was born and struggled to
declare his writing ability in spite of exile, dislocation and estrangement sensibilities.
Owing to the sense of marginality, V. S. Naipaul sees himself as an expatriate and
believes that London is his business center.

As a multifaceted global novelist, V. S. Naipaul, is endorsed a representative of

exile, dislocation, estrangement and homelessness because his Trinidadian Brahmin
family is rooted in the Eastern India but he himself was born in the West Indies then
went to school and lived in London. His identity issue develops as a result of his
refugee conditions and these subjects consisting of exile, alienation and displacement
preoccupied his work. He is an expatriate by preference who opted to alienate
himself from the people, cultural recognitions and nations, wherever he travels. To
him, the entire world appears to be foreign landscape. He at all times experiences a
basic dispossession, despite the fact that he has his own residence in England. He is

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an individual to whom the whole world is as a foreign land and to whom all nations
are as his local home. Indeed, the remarkable landmark in V. S. Naipaul’s fictional
world is the life in exile. He perceives exile as a position to the minority people who
fight to realize their identities.

In conclusion, the protagonist profoundly appreciates that he must grab a chance to

build his identity since he has led a life of diversion for too long. V.S. Naipaul, for
instant, is aspiring to commence a new life. Naipaul left his audience in suspense; his
remaining account left hanging. He will keep on looking for his subjectivity and his
own native home in the world. While building his identity, V.S. Naipaul tackles the
feeling of displacement and realizes that it is impossible to come up with a
permanent identity. For that reason, he understands that self is not fixed but
constructed with time as in the case of the declaration of the post-colonial discussion.
He will acquire widen and various perceptions to study his experiences. The
restructuring of his subjectivity will be carried on in process. To end with, V.S.
Naipaul will reconstruct a new home, hence of a sense identity, through a thoughtful
approval and coping with his status as an everlasting expatriate.

5.6 Accords of Identity in Postcolonial Literature

Identity alteration and subsequent alienation have formed a prominent part of most of
Naipaul's and other postcolonial literature. Among such writers, is Derek Walcott,
whose writings include “Ti-Jean and His Brothers” and “Remembrance.” The story
of Ti-Jean is related to Naipaul’s A House for Mr. Biswas, which demonstrates the
alienation of Caribbean families during the postcolonial era.

To explain identity further, Ricoeur (1984) has asserted that "To give people back a
memory is also to give them back a future. . . . The past is not passé, for our future is
guaranteed precisely by our ability to possess a narrative identity, to recollect the
past in historical or fictive form” (p. 28). Bearing this in mind, Ralph Singh in
Naipaul’s The Mimic Men has moved in the same phase; however, he has not
considered his past to be an important aspect of his lifestyle, that has generated a
sense of homelessness within him. While giving a sense of this lack of identity,
Ralph writes that he was “born on an island like Isabella, an obscure New World
transplantation, second-hand and barbarous, was to be born to disorder” (Naipaul
1967, p. 127). By comparing the culture to a barbarous and second-hand society, he

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has translated his feelings and emotions that were deeply embedded within him, but
obscured by his very ambition of becoming more like a colonialist instead of
following his ancestors’ footsteps.

The ills of colonialism caused far more damage than those of identity; the culture of
the subjects were also altered, and the very fabric of society was distorted by
different colonial invasions. Another masterpiece of Naipaul, A House for Mr.
Biswas, centers around identity issues faced by a character abandoning his identity.
One of the core aspects of the novel includes changes in political epoch while
considering locality and subjectivity. Most of the colonial subjects who emerge in
colonial ranks were at one instance a subject of colonial rule.

Ralph has also reflected this subjectivity, formulated by his colonial experience
along with political ramifications associated with the postcolonial period. Following
the steps of colonials is one aspect of Ralph's life; however, becoming a subject of
colonial rule has also made him distance himself from his rooted and programmed
identity. Roshan Cader (2008) has shed light on the life of Naipaul and its
implications for his novel characters, including Ralph Singh and Mr. Biswas. He has
noticed that the core nature of colonial subjects and their experience is the
uprootment and uneasiness around the subject's life, noting that, "identity formation
is always contingent" (Cader 2008, p. 24). Ralph Singh has found his true identity,
not as part of ancestor's heritage but in bits and fragments that were "haphazard" as
reflected from his writings. Ralph has also found himself enveloped in a fragile
position, having neither a complete identity as a colonial subject nor as an Indian
with strong ancestral values, or even as a Caribbean national.

Another masterpiece of postcolonial literature, Salman Rushdie’s Imaginary

Homelands, addresses the same experience of the immigrant’s uprootness and loss of
identity in recreating the lost past. For reflecting on those issues, the colonialist is
"obliged to deal in broken mirrors, some of whose fragments have been irretrievably
lost" (Rushdie 2012, p. 11). In the beginning, Ralph has referred to his stark living,
stating it as "multi-mirrored, book shaped room" (Naipaul 1967, p. 3), clearly
depicting his shattered and pluralistic self-image that even he is quite confused to
understand. His identity has been divided into fragments of self and multiple
mirrored images that encompass the ambivalence, along with an indeterminacy
considering his very own subjectivity. It can be deduced that his pluralistic selves,

106
together with a unique and exotic blend of Indian culture, have left a physically and
psychically displaced man in this "profound existence crisis" (Cader 2008, p. 26).

Naipaul’s Singh also mirrors the author’s own cultural shock and the transition he
has faced during his lifetime. A unique blend of Indian, British, and Caribbean
cultures illuminates the life-long choices that Ralph must make as an alien on foreign
soil. The Indian roots of the author and his character have made these two
remarkably similar in different contexts. Naipaul also went through the thought
process as is depicted by his reflection of colonialist culture, along with a strong
emphasis on the colonized and colonizer’s relationship dynamics. The development
of Ralph’s newly formed identity and his confrontation with ancestral values of his
Indian roots is presented in ample depth and detail in the novel.

5.7. Conclusion

The inception of Naipaul’s Ralph Singh brings forward various dimensions of an

alienated life under colonial dominance. From the very perspectives of mimicry to
complete loss of identity, Ralph traverses the different phases in his life. His early
life as a Ranjit Singh, along with his transformation as Ralph Singh, bring forward
different aspects of his identity crisis, ambivalence, and hybridity. The character’s
sense of mimicry and identity are absent in the beginning. But early life education in
English school has also alienated him from his Indian roots and ancestral culture and
tradition. The development of such a diversified outlook has left him in despair and
turmoil.

Fanon and Said’s theories of postcolonial identity strongly adhere to Naipaul’s vision
of an alien––a person with no cultural background of value left him, who thus
mimics foreign culture. (Fanon’s Black Skin White Masks (1952) explains how the
colonized mimics the colonizer under the impact of colonizer’s strategy, devised for
them to feel inferior. In several of his theoretic presentations, Said’s envisions the
binary relation between colonized and colonizers (Said 1978; Said 1984; Said 1983.
Naipaul's identity formation and the crisis of Ralph Singh, a postcolonial subject in
The Mimic Men, relates to the author’s self-consciousness of his reality. This
awareness of one's actuality well serves Said’s idea of viewing the binary as
“contrapuntal,” (see chapter 2) and his understanding of the hybrid presence of the

107
postcolonial world. The identity Naipaul seeking lies in understanding the past,
shaped by colonial discipline, and the decolonized present. Identity cannot be formed
only by awareness and is about mind and self-decolonization rather than mimicries
manifestation.

Exile, a strangely compelling issue with a distinct set of problems, has not gone away
in recent times. Naipaul, a man who suffers the pain and wrath of an exile
experience, several times suffers the experience of being exiled between three
different countries. He reflects his own biography in developing Singh as a central
character in The Mimic Men, perhaps trying to locate himself. Singh attempts to
establish his identity both in the Caribbean and in England and, despite his close
relationship with life in London and Caribbean, he fails to fit in either place. The
Mimic Men as a novel of postcolonial identity creation, thorougly explores ideas and
negotiations of the mind in conceptualizing the world throughout self-awareness.

In general, a feeling of nomadic uprootedness is one thing that makes people to

reflect on that feeling of lacking steady ground after leaving their ancestral lands.
However, they are eager to experience a variety of homes, countries and places even
as they stick to the past in sweet misery. According to Said, ‘Exile is asserted on the
occurrence of, bond with, and love for, ones ancestral home. The truth about exile is
not that the love of home and the existence of home are lost, but that loss is intrinsic
of both, hence the identity’ We see V.S. Naipaul wandering without a substantial
identity. His multi-background hinders him in his quest for one fixed identity.
Though he at first thinks of England as a favourable place, he still feels that he is a
marginalized expatriate in a beautiful country. He gives up his sense of place as well
as his original cultural heritage. Awfully, Naipaul cannot stand the sight of his true
ancestral account, his real descent. He uses his thoughts to formulate a fantasized
identity and attempts to live by its disguise. All in all, V.S. Naipaul is alienated and
lives a life of an exile. He investigated, in his writings, the enormous possibilities and
facets of this subject matter of alienation and exile. The search for a home, pursuit
for identity seems to be achievable. Nevertheless, it remains a delusion. Reality is a
conscientious undertaking, even if it may be fruitless. Amid reality and fantasy lies
an infinite space of human plight in exile. It is this space that Naipaul endevours to
discover. The vainness of the quest for identity and the sorrow of exile emerge to be
conflicting existential crisis of the present world.

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6. CONCLUSION

The postcolonial period is best described by both the conditions and elements of
decolonization. In the fight for their freedom and for recognition of their culture,
many newly free nations of the 20th century confronted problems and difficulties,
most of them stemming from the legacy of colonialism. Problems that prevailed after
the postcolonial period were the likes of displacement, diaspora, relocation, those
which prompted the loss of or confounding the acknowledgment of identity. In this
regard, literary writers in ex-colonized nations composed unique novels that
examined such challenges of this period. Moreover, these novels conveyed a crisis in
a way that deeply demonstrates how fundamental such problems are to them. The
distinction between postcolonial problems and postcolonial inconveniences
developed for these writers various distinct perspectives and diverse reactions about
character development in this period.

One of the most discussed and vital issues in postcolonial studies is the subject of
identity. Theorists and critics have given careful consideration to postcolonialism,
especially from the end of WWII, arguing about and examining postcolonial
identities, and hypothesizing their development (or lack of development) and
difficulties. Scholars have offered various perspectives and contentions the act of
recognizing and finding significance in postcolonial identity. They differ on its
difficult moments, according to the period, and how identity is examined. Identity in
the postcolonial period tends to be the most valued and significant aspect because of
the long period of despondency entire countries suffered by colonialists. During such
periods of despondency, the new countries, as freed societies and citizens, quested
for a lost identity. Such definitions of identity cannot not be found in the dictionary;
entire peoples had existences primarily in connection to the "other."

Frantz Fanon began his psychoanalytic reading of the colonized individuals'

bewilderment and lost identity in 1967. He was able to uncover the impact of
colonialism on its victims, together with how they responded to colonialism. He

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portrays identity by regarding how colonizers and colonized treated and embedded
inadequacy into the interior self of the colonized. Through this, the colonized
attempted to configure their identity by impersonating the colonizer, to appear equal
to them.

Said’s postcolonial theories (Said 1978; Said 1983; Said 2002), underscore Fanon’s
ideas on the impact of colonial forces in framing colonial identities, especially by
separating the world into West and East. Western colonialists disseminated belief
systems, intentionally, about Western views and predominance. According to Said
(Said 1978; Said 1983; Said 2002), the enforced identity of Western culture onto
Eastern subjects does not allow the latter to be genuinely themselves. He believes
that true identity needs to be shaped under rebellion of the colonial system,
dismissing the enforced images and retreating to the customary realities of Eastern
identity.

Selvon’s postcolonial novel, The Lonely Londoners portrays the misfortunes of the
West Caribbean immigrants who settled in London during and immediately after the
English colonized the islands. In the settings of the novel, Selvon vividly describes
the immigrant dilemma through references to their challenges. The afterward of the
novel provides details of Selvon’s objective in writing it, showing how
decolonization works, investigating and exposing the cruel activities of the native
Londoners.

Colonial victims from the West Caribbean islands immigrated to London to seek a
better life, following the challenges and hardship they faced in their native country
under colonial forces. They had expected to be treated with a modicum of
friendliness and acknowledgment. Instead, they were subjected to racial
discrimination and worse atrocities in human rights violations. They were
systematically disgraced and isolated by native Londoners because of their black
skin, a hardship most immigrants struggled mightily to come to terms with. They felt
aggravated because of the torments their color brought on them in England at large
(Kanneh, 1993).

Selvon, through his comments on West Caribbean immigrant color, depicts Fanon’s
idea of mimicry. Many immigrants grew to hate their dark color. In The Lonely
Londoners, Selvon describes the dissatisfaction of immigrants such as Galahad, who

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discloses his feelings a discussion with fellow blacks. During the discussion one
immigrant, noting the colonizer’s lack of acknowledgment of his identity, says that
he has longed to be similar to his colonizers, rather than be dark.

In the novel, Selvon demonstrates one aspect of cultural diversity through his
depiction of the preference of these youthful dark men for white women in their
sexual encounters. This focus on pursuing their sexual lives with white women
assists the immigrants in rising above the ill-natured treatment of the native
Londoners, and through these encounters to become a kind of anthropological
specialist on white behaviors. This aspect of cultural diversity enacted by the
immigrants also helps them to move freely around the city. They move deeper and
further into London to familiarize themselves with areas that have denied entrance to
immigrants (Selvon 1956, p. 73).

In The Mimic Men, Naipaul presents the origins of Ralph Singh, his diverse
viewpoints on his estranged life under colonialism. Practicing mimicry to
compensate for his loss of identity, Ralph has developed through the several stages
of his life. His early life as a Ranjit Singh, with the identity change to Ralph Singh,
presents distinctive parts of his identity problems, his indecision, and the effects of
hybridity in the cultures he lives within. He becomes estranged because of his early
education in an English school, and especially from his Indian background and
ancestral culture and traditions. An identity centered on his response of mimicry
remains unattainable. The lack of growth or improvement shown to him in his
eventual broadened viewpoint leaves him despondent and in turmoil.

Fanon’s hypothesis of impersonation (1952) firmly supports Naipaul's viewpoint of

the alien’s mimicking response to the colonizer––a man who imitates the foreign
society because he has no social foundation. Naipaul develops Ralph’s identity in the
character’s self-awareness of his existence, nd his comprehension of the hybrid
cultural surroundings of the postcolonial world. Moreover, Naipaul shows identity as
depending on and comprehending the past formed by colonialism, together with the
decolonization of the present. Identity, he implies, is not achieved simply by
awareness of one’s surroundings, one also needs awareness of mind, a self-
decolonization as opposed to the simple mimicry of others you admire. The Mimic
Men is a novel of postcolonial personality development. It is entirely about Ralph’s
thoughts, the mind’s involvement and conceptualizing of the world.

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Said's translation of cultural diversity, and that "Survival in reality is about the
associations between things" Ashcroft et al. (1999, p. 119) have seen that this idea
derives from the "in the middle of space" that incorporates its significance and, in
particular, it likewise incorporates the "cultural weight" that really upgrades the
impression of blended societies. Then, Naipaul shares some comparable perspectives
with Said. In The Mimic Men, Naipaul has exhibited an anecdotal character of Indian
Brahmin origin, who has been subjected to estrangement from colonial culture amid
the mid 1840s. Instead of tolerating the cultural ideas and the mechanics of social
diversity qualities, Naipaul has demonstrated extraordinary abhorrence for hybridity.
Colonialism has presented complex predicaments and an insoluble dilemma to its
victims who, in the postcolonial world, have had rebuild their lives and identities out
of its disastrous effects. Many people suffering colonial atrocities have escaped to
other countries to seek some kind of freedom. But in most cases they come to learn
that even in their new home neither freedom nor an end to their crisis can prevail.
Some of these individuals end up contemplating or committing suicide as a result of
the crises they have experienced, while others attempt to take revenge in their
bleached culture backgrounds.

The loss of identity remains one of the most prevalent crises experienced by
colonized people, both during the period under colonial rule and the postcolonial era.
Postcolonial literature has thoroughly traversed this territory, giving accounts of the
various experiences of victims and how they have redeemed themselves. The
accounts reflect some of the theories emerging at the same time or shortly thereafter,
clearly supporting the idea of comprehending the past––formed by colonialism––
together with the decolonization of the present to regain or build from the lost
identity. Cultural education is essential for decolonizing the minds of those on either
end of the colonial relationship. A free society should thus consider the human need
for freedom from oppression, and for racial equality.

In the postcolonial context, therefore, the actual meaning of identity may not be
comprehended simply as an abstract concept, or tangible, without the presence of the
“other.” Thus this study concludes with the point that identity constitution or
development involves the interference of diverse factors, including setting, and
individual and social responses to the challenges immigrants face in their struggle for
self-recognition.

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In terms of the discussion within this study of identity crisis, especially the
contentions of Fanon and Said, the aspects of the crisis appear in the guise of the pro-
colonized imitating and impersonating––or mimicry. These attempts with regard to
the colonizers’ style and way of life, create the feeling of estrangement or alienation
within the mimicker, despite resisting the colonizer’s attitude and ideology. In
addition, the exile’s or immigrant’s attempt to bargain with both the previous and
present cultures, brought together in their opposition, accords with Said’s
contrapuntal understanding of postcolonial identities. This dynamic appears in the
way the exile resists and accepts Western ways of life in the actual loss of identity;
finally this identity resembles neither their original nor their colonizer’s, but one that
takes influence from both.

As the recognition and the creation of postcolonial identity comes into crisis, as the
exile or immigrant experiences difficulties inside the reality of an atmosphere of
receiving or responding to racism, marginalization, and cruelty, itisworth mentioning
that reaching such a point forms an important crossroad; thus, in addition to the
above-mentioned circumstances, the crisis also appears as related to the postcolonial
character in the self-esteem, but also as a dilemma in the sense of how inferior one
senses him- or herself, thus adopting or mimicking Western traditions and styles of
life, but also in responding to how the “other” regards them and degrades them
existentially. Selvon and Naipaul’s novels present similar understandings of this
aspect of identity crisis, supported by Fanon’s and Said’s theories of identity.

The postcolonial theory and the novels of this study investigate, affectively, the
different kinds of migration, exile, and diasporic space. Although colonialism and its
aftermath have obviously influenced postcolonial identities, the exile and immigrant
have also affected the Western identity, by creating demographic changes with new
aspects of multiculturalism and bringing about new conceptions with respect to
diversity and equality. These phenomena have yet to be tackled efficiently; future
postcolonial theory and literature must shift in their perspectives of reality, read and
investigate contrapuntally,which Said practiced in a single direction (from the
perspective of the colonized), and one of the reasons the crisis of identity has yet to
be completely visualized.

Finally the study arrives at the finding that setting down a clear definition of identity
cannot be possible in the context of post colonialism. Theories and literatures of post

115
colonialism remain separate, thus one-sided, in their views of issues related to
identity and crisis, leaving an envisioning or locating of clear perceptions of exact
delimitations incomplete. Accordingly, counter-readings of this issue (from Western
perspectives), in future studies, should be examined side by side with readings based
on postcolonial or colonized perspectives.

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RESUME

1. PERSONAL INFORMATION
Name : Saman Abdulqadir Hussein Dizayi
Nationality : Iraq
Gender : Male
Date of Birth: 18-12-1962
Marital Status: Married
Address : Erbil - Iraq
Tel. : 05343929962 - TR
07507320220 - IRQ
E-mail : sdizayi@gmail.com
Languages : English ( advanced) , Arabic( native like), Turkish(Medium)
2. EDUCATIONAL HISTORY
2.1 PHD Student at English Language and Literature Dep. Social Sciences -
Istanbul Aydın University (2012- 2017)
2.2 MA (2007) English Literature = Salahaddin University.
2.3 BA (2004) English Language and Literature- Salahaddin University.
2.4 Bsc. Agriculture (1986) Salahaddin University.
3. CAREER HISTORY
3.1 Teaching Experience

1. Written Translation - University of salahadin – college of languages –

2.Translation Department (2005-2006).
3. Elizabethan Poetry - University of Salahadin- English Department (2006-
2007) (2007-2008).

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 4. Elizabethan Drama (Shakespearian Drama) (2008).
5. Literary Criticism- University of Salahaddin- college of languages (2008-
2009).
6. English for Tourism+ general English – Tourism Institute (2007- 2009)
7. General English – Erbil Poly technical University-(2009-2016).
8. General English- Cihan University (2016- ).

3.2 Administrative positions

1. Dean Assistant – Administrative Technical Institute ( 2010-)

2. Dean Assistant- Tourism Technical Institute ( 2008- 2010)

3. Administration manager- Tourism Institute ( 2007)

4. Manager of scientific Unit- Tourism Institute (2007-2008)

5. Chief of Exams Committee – Erbil Administrative Technical Institute- Erbil

Poly Technical University (2009-2012)

6. Manager of private office / minister of Religious Affairs (1992-2005)

4. CONFERENCES

INTCESS, International Conference on Education and Sociology, Istanbul 2-4

February 2014. Author Presenter.

Work shop on developing Technical Education in Iraq, Istanbul 2010.

Methods of Teaching. Erbil Poly Technical Univesity 2009.

5. PAPERS PUBLISHED

1. Immigrants Identity Crisis in The Lonely Londoners, IRA-International

Journal of Management & Social Sciences ISSN 2455-2267; Vol.04, Issue 01
(2016)
2. The Crisis of Identity in Postcolonial Novel, 2-4 February 2015- Istanbul,
Turkey Proceedings of INTCESS15- 2nd International Conference on Education
and Social Sciences p.999.

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 6. OTHER SKILLS

1. Using computer properly specially Microsoft word, power point.Very good

Communication skills, working under pressure and Excellent Working skills as a
team.

2. Translating skills published numerous translations from and into English as well
as hundreds of poems into Arabic.

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